Waking Hours

Barber to the stars

Normally, I get up at 7am. My wife, Juanita, is always up first. She makes fresh pancakes in the morning. I had to do it today, because she is away. What a disaster; they were too thick, too crispy. I’ll wake the kids, and start getting them ready for school, getting out their uniforms.

Max does his hair. He has his own little comb and water spray. He sprays his hair and parts it right to left. He probably gets this from me. I’m a barber, and he sees me cutting hair. Then he puts on his aftershave.

He has beautiful teeth, but he knocked two of them out recently. One came out when he was doing this Fortnite dance, where he flipped his knee on the ground. Then I knocked the other one out when we were having a pillow fight.

I normally have the clothes ready from the night before. I hate anyone ironing my shirts; I have to iron them myself. I make the bed every morning, and I have to do it myself. Max is the same. When I’m tucking things in, he will come over and help me. It’s a good habit.

But girls are the worst. My daughter flings things everywhere. Although she is quite fussy about her ponytail, you have to have it perfectly smooth, or she’ll take it down. Before I was a barber, I used to be a ladies’ hairdresser. There were times when I’d say to her, ‘Do you know how many people’s hair I’ve done?’ I did Saoirse Ronan’s hair for Italian Vogue. But she says, ‘Dad, I don’t care. Look at that bump.’ So she takes it down and does it herself. She has this system where she puts her hair up the vacuum, it sucks it up, and then she puts the bobbin on the nozzle of the vacuum. It’s all about getting the perfect ponytail.

My dad was a barber and my mother was a hairdresser, so I was surrounded by grooming. My mother wouldn’t send me out with a dirty shirt. If you weren’t clean, there would be killings. Your shirt had to be ironed. It was all about taking pride in your appearance. I shower, and I use hair products and moisturising cream.

Before I leave the house, I check my emails to see if anything has arisen with the business — The Grafton Barber. My brother Hugh and I opened our first shop on Grafton Street in 1994. We decided that there was an opportunity in male grooming. We had men coming in who wanted perms and highlights, and barbers wouldn’t do them back then. We also had private rooms, for anyone who wanted to get a colour in their hair but didn’t want to sit out [in full view]. Nobody was doing hot-towel shaving, because barbers felt that it was too long of a service, but we thought the opposite. It was a luxury that we wanted to offer, so that men could sit down and relax. It worked. Now we have 40 barbershops, and we have a warehouse, which stocks all our products.

I’m lucky I’m able to bring the kids to school every morning. I’m home late in the evenings, so this is my time with them.

My brother Hugh lives close by. Every morning, we have a meeting about the business and what needs to be done. We are best friends — but don’t get me wrong, we have our moments. He looks after business, and I’m still on the floor. I deal with staff, and I still cut hair, every day.

When we first opened, I went from working in Ballyfermot to Grafton Street. It was a totally different clientele, and I had to learn how to deal with them. Suddenly, we had judges, barristers, actors and doctors. The journalist Jonathan Philbin Bowman used to come into us, right up until his death. I remember him very well. What a great man, with beautiful hair.

So many clients became friends. This morning, I had a doctor who lives in Canada. He was home to see his parents. I know him since he was a student in the Royal College of Surgeons.

I read the newspapers every day, and I tell our staff to do the same. It’s about getting a feel for what’s going on, and you have to be aware of who might be your next customer. It could be a sports star or a head coach, and they might be in the paper. We do an appointment system, especially at certain times. Professionals don’t have the time to hang around. One of my pet hates is people being late. They say, ‘Sorry, I’m five minutes late.’ But then that screws up the next appointment.

As a barber, you are trying to suss out a person and their life, without quizzing them. Some men want to talk, and others don’t. They might have lost their mother or father, or got a divorce last week. I’ve heard so many stories, but I never gossip. I believe in loyalty.

Sometimes men come in and they have been married, but are not in a happy marriage. They look frumpy. Then all of a sudden, they break up, so they want to have a new look. They might be going out on a date, and they ask for my advice. I really feel for them. I might suggest a beard. Even though they are harder to keep than shaving every day, they hide a lot of jowls.

I get home from work around 8pm. I play football twice a week, and I enjoy that. The lads are electricians, sheet-metal workers and plumbers. Other nights, I bring the kids to their various activities. Both my son and daughter play football. I love being a barber, but if I could have done anything else, I would have loved to have been a professional footballer.

Juanita and I are quite sociable. We enjoy a night out, but it all depends on getting a good babysitter.

“Even though beards are harder to keep than shaving every day, they hide a lot of jowls”