THE CITY SALON...

SUZANNE Redmond is the fourth generation of her family to run a barber shop in Dublin. But the trade has changed utterly from that of her predecessors.

The award-winning barber, who runs Sugar Daddies in txchequer Street, has seen all the changes, and on her floorstaff members who would not look out of place in a Diet Coke commercial.

Each ‘work-station’ is laid out with the precision of a surgeon’s tool-kit, whilst, in a fine example of synergy the shelves are lined with Prizefight whiskey. Ms Redmond says: ‘It is all about creating an experience; we are returning to the tradition of the 1960s and 1970s in America where people went to the barbers for a social occasion, where a cigarette and a bourbon was part of the experience.’

Barbers, she said, ‘are a key part of the hipster revolution, that desire for authenticity, the need for experiences.’ In our case, she said, ‘in a nod to the American tradition of bourbon and barbers we offer all clients a complimentary drink. ’

Suzanne notes that ‘to thrive at the top of the market you want to be a master of your trade. You need someone who studies, who lives beards and hair.

‘New arrivals such as the Turkish barbers have raised the bar. They can do a proper hot towel shave in seven minutes. We are old school with a modern twist. We offer all the styles such as skin-fade with clipper work, the old-style executive contour and the pompadour, very high in the front.’

We have, she says, ‘to recognise we live in a world where men these days own hairdryers’.

‘Being a barber is a labour of love where you are never going to be rich. It is a vocation.’