MAKING THE CUT
Celebrating earthquake city’s stories of tenacity.
Margo Flanagan set up her barbershop at her Somerfield home after her New Regent St premises were cordoned off in the CBD red zone after February 22.
Flanagan said she never considered closing up shop. ‘‘You just do what you’ve got to do. You don’t think about it, you just do it,’’ she said.
One week after the February quake – once she and her husband had cleaned up the liquefaction at their Somerfield home – she had cleared out the ‘‘glorified junk room’’ in her back garden, transformed it into a barbershop and, with her dog working as her doorbell, Flanagan’s first client arrived. Her database of client details had been out of reach inside her New Regent St shop, but after advertising in local media and having her business telephone line diverted to her home number, her clients responded. By March 21 she had her first fully booked day.
Flanagan had some initial costs to restart but had been fortunate, she said. A spare antique barber’s chair had been stored at home so while her three barber chairs were stuck in her New Regent St shop for months she had had a chair for her clients.
‘‘Ironically, my husband said to me a couple of weeks before the earthquake ‘When are you going to get this barber’s chair out ofmy garage?’’’
Her ‘‘glorified junk room’’ looks like it has been a barbershop for years – complete with a barber’s pole and a full appointment book.