Once A Styler, Always A Styler!
Brief Bio:
The great legendary band leader Duke Ellington, once gave some advice to the singing legend Tony Bennett,
“Always do two things”.
Tony Bennett not only was a great singer he was also a great painter.
I have also done two things all my life, I have sang and cut men’s hair, both with great passion and interest.
When I was around 13, I had my first electric guitar. This broadened my mind to listen to different music and that’s when I first heard some of Nat King Coles music. At the same time I was massively interested in hairstyles & fashion. As things developed by the age of 14-15, I had two part time jobs. During the day on Saturdays I worked with my uncle George in his barber shop & in the evenings and on Sundays I played guitar and sang with different bands at Greek dances and weddings.
From the first day at work with my uncle George, he taught me how to hold a comb, scissors and clippers, he also let me cut all the local skinheads & regular friends hair! I had to tell everyone a white lie that I was older than 14 and was actually at college!
The weekends gigs increased too & eventually I put the guitar to one side I was the front man singing .
I was in my element doing both, really enjoying it and making lots of money !
Later in my teens I dabbled a bit with the idea of learning how to cut ladies hair. I was privileged enough to work with the great hairdresser Nicky Clark at the John Frieda salon, assisting him at photo shoots with David Bailey, Lord Snowdon & Terry O’Neil. Despite this exposure to ladies styling I couldn’t stand it, I preferred cutting & styling men’s hair . For me it was more direct and often a bigger transformation.
Nicky was a lovely guy to work with though.
By 23 I had my own barbershop in East Twickenham. It was a shop that was originally set up by my uncles George & Alex in 1958. It had an original 1950’s vitralite cabinet. I restored it and soon I got the business right back up to its max, 4 chairs & 4 barbers working flat out on a Saturday.By the age of 35 I wanted a change, the running of a busy shop with staff was often hard & stressful. Because of this my passion for men’s hairstyling was wailing and throughout the 13 years I was there my singing had taken a back seat( I was too knackered)I wanted a change & a break.
I fulfilled a boyhood dream & me my family emigrated to Cyprus & lived closer to my parents. Together we created magical memories and I also got the chance to rekindle my desire for singing, soon I was writing new songs & also performing in the hotels. It was fabulous, not lucrative though🤦🏻♂️trying to get paid by some of the music agents was literally impossible!
When we returned back to the UK in my now early 40’s I returned back also to the male grooming industry & opened up my shop on The Lanes, Brighton. This location has worked brilliantly for me, it’s has enabled me to marry two professions that I am equally passionate about !
As Tony Bennett said, I also agree
'I have a passion throughout my life to just improve, improve, practice, practice, practice and try to get better and better.And it's never stopped..... I always tell everyone that I've never worked a day in my life because I'm doing two things I love. It never feels like work to me, ( apart from when my legs are tired from standing all day!)
