By Alan D
Well, here we are….65 years later! It’s gone by in a flash and perhaps now is the time to reprise some of the most memorable events of that 65 years.
My apprenticeship at Robert fielding of Regent Street is the most obvious place to start. Getting experience in a salon or barbershop whilst training at the same time is the best way a school leaver can start on a career that can take you from a little town or village to the most exotic places around the world.
We always tell the next generation of hairdressers “10 fingers, travel the world” and that is the truth, certainly for me, having started at 15-years-old in 1960 and literally coming from a village called Pinner in Middlesex. Following my initial training, after getting some experience away from the salon I trained in, I returned after 18 months to the salon that would become my spiritual home; that would eventually take me on a journey that included becoming a Director of a subsidiary of a public company, a management buy-out, and eventually to buying the business.
In between there were difficult times such as interest rates at 18% when we bought the business in 1990, the IRA bombing campaign, huge rises in rental values, and as always, the constant difficulty of finding and training staff. Then we had the financial crisis of 2008 which was not so different to the problems we’ve faced recently since the Covid’19 epidemic.However, when you look back, the good things always out-way the bad. Edward, our son, joined the business in 1992 after training at our school and has since gone on to become a well-known industry figure, involved with apprenticeship training at the highest level, both from a practical level in our day-to-day education program at the school and also at the other end of training, lobbying for better standards for future generations of hairdressers and barbers. My wife Bonnie and I now work at the school four days each week alongside Edward and our great team of trainers. We enjoy the noise of the students, the buzz that is synonymous with hairdressing, salons, and barbershops which make them such warm and friendly places for clients to relax in. After all, our aim as hairdressers and barbers is to please our clients and that is something that has never changed in all my 65 years.
Just to remind you, I started my career as an apprentice and in the ensuing years have returned to my original aim of making sure there is always the next generation of hairdressers and barbers continuing to service the needs of the general public.