Celebrities queued up for my barber dad’s famous ‘Smiler’ cut
CUTTING hair wasn’t my father’s first choice of career. Growing up in Commonwealth Cyprus, he’d always dreamt of flying with the RAF, but his hopes were dashed when he arrived in Britain in 1952 and fluffed the entrance exam on account of his poor english.
The examiners told him to reapply the following year but Dad wasn’t the sort to hang around and so, scissors in hands, he and his older brother Paul opened a unisex hairdressing salon in Southeast London.
he might well have made a great pilot, but he was a wonderful barber — handsome, personable and always smiling . . . hence the nickname ‘Smiler’.
Business flourished and soon he was cutting the hair of boxer henry Cooper (and his brother George), Denis Thatcher and Formula 1 tycoon Bernie ecclestone. his customers travelled far and wide to see him and would queue outside waiting for a ‘Smiler cut’.
he was 31 when he met my mum Jean, then 22, at the local dance hall. She was immediately smitten by his Greek god looks and his taste for adventure and they spent their courtship roaring round the countryside on his motorbike (with Mum riding pillion) or showing off their signature ‘quick step’ moves at the embassy Dance hall in Welling.
They were married in 1957 and, a year later, Smiler’s ‘pride and joy’ — a baby girl, me! — was born and we settled into happy family life.
he loved life in Britain, adored shooting and fishing, but he never lost touch with his Cypriot roots, and was a regular at his local Greek Orthodox Church.
As often as he could and for as long as he was able, he would drive back across europe every year to his beloved homeland. he was devastated by the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the loss of his family home in Famagusta. his family temporarily became refugees in Limassol.
his own luck took a turn for the worse one new Year’s Day, when he was in his late 40s, and stopped to help a young man whose car had broken down.
Another car veered into the back of them, nearly killing Dad. he was in hospital for a month, convalesced for over a year and was forced into early retirement. But he didn’t lose heart. Instead of cutting hair, he helped local farmers in Kent with vermin control and fished — regularly sharing his catches of mackerel and sea bream with friends and neighbours.
When he finally started slowing down in his late 80s he got an iPad and, overnight, became an avid silver surfer as Google opened up a whole new world of learning and information.
Soon he and his trusty tablet were joined at the hip and it was a dark day indeed when Mum accidentally sat on and broke it.
But they weathered that mishap and, in 2017, celebrated 60 years of marriage, receiving a congratulations card from the Queen.
he was a wonderful husband, the very best father and a lovely, lovely man, utterly content with his lot.
Death came unexpectedly. Shortly before his 92nd birthday, Smiler fell one morning, fractured several ribs and passed away quietly from heart failure a day after being admitted to hospital.
We miss him so very much, but remember him forever smiling and are thankful for all the wonderful, funny years we spent together.
Avgoustinos ‘smiler’ george Panagiotou, born July 1, 1926, died May 13, 2018, aged 91.