Mark – “I started barbering purely by chance! I sat next to a friend of mine’s mother at a 40th birthday party when I was a teenager. I was unemployed and by the end of that party she had offered me a job hairdressing. Her husband was a barber as well so I undertook a hairdressing apprenticeship which I enjoyed but I started filling in for Lionel the Barber every now and then as he kept stealing staff at busy times and I seemed to be his go to guy. It was nice to get away from colouring and chemicals in the hair salon. I did about 7 years of hairdressing and this was when I was living in Cairns. So I did the whole apprenticeship, nightclub fashion shows, putting on hair shows, going out to nightclubs in gold, glittery tights and purple hair, living the dream.
After that I went to work for Dave’s Barber Shop still in Cairns. I’ve been in Lismore 10 years now which makes it 22 years in barber shops. I was in Melbourne for a couple of years in between then we came to Lismore as our first child, Luka was on the way. I bought a shop called Bob’s Barber Shop at the time which I renamed The Badgers Bristle. It was Ken Pollocks old shop and I was there for 8 or 9 years.
I then went off exploration drilling with my wife’s family for a bit of a change and when we came back I decided to go in with ‘The Boys’ hair salon to not have the one man, one chair thing and I worked with them for a while.
I’m now here in The Summerland Arcade in my own little shop. There’s been a lot of change over the years. Most barbers now take appointments, my shopfront is more or less Facebook now, social media is a barbers best friend these days where 5 years ago in my shop, I didn’t even have a phone number, it was just walk in.
I used to do $12 hair cuts in 12 minutes and now I do $30 hair cuts in 30 minutes so it’s here nor there but it’s allowed me in the second part of my career to slow up and take more time and be more creative which I like. I have enough demand with the current fashion, hair tattoos, tracks. etc, to use that time.
I’m off on holidays tomorrow with my wife and kids and extended family. There’s 11 of us and we’re travelling over to Dubai, New York, Trinidad, The Carribeaan, Barbados, Milan, Venice and back to lovely Lismore. I’m hoping to come back with fresh ideas. I will be checking out New York barber shops and Italian Barber shops as well. When I come back I want to fix my shop up a bit so I can take another person. I really want to educate this year. I still want to cut hair but educating is something I’ll enjoy.”
Mark the BarberSummerland Arcade, 98 Woodlark st, Lismore, New South Wales 2480