A cut above the rest

FULL-time barber, almost full-time psychologist? An apt description for Ennistymon-based Eddie Kiernan?
Definitely not far off. If they either read or hear about what comes next, teenagers in the town will be a bit wary about what they do in the days after they get their next snip from Eddie. It’s just that he has them clocked. He knows what to expect when the youth of the area come in for a cut.
“Working in the town for six years, I’ve got to know a lot of the young lads,” Eddie confirmed, while battling to bring some rhyme or reason to the head of his latest customer (Me).
“You know when a young lad has a new girlfriend. He’ll come in and want a new style. He’ll start to get fussy about it. A couple of days later, you might see him walking around holding hands with the girl,” he added.
I suggested to Eddie that maybe his customers attract the ladies on the strength of the haircut he gives them and that could be what has the females flocking. Less hair, more women?
“Maybe it is the hair,” he mused dubiously. “But then I’d be starting to charge commission,” he added, perking up at the idea.
Originally from Dublin, Eddie lives in the area with his wife, Majella and their daughters, 15-year-old Orinn and 11-year-old Sian.
Orinn recently got 11 honours in the Junior Cert, which got Eddie thinking. That total was more than he and his wife managed between them in their day.
“I don’t know. Maybe we brought the wrong child home from hospital?” he suggested.
Back to less contentious ground. Cutting hair, how hard can it be? Well, it does take four years to complete an apprenticeship and some challenging heads of hair plant themselves in front of Eddie. He’s a barber, not a magician remember.
“The worst offenders are young teenagers. They’ve been told all the time to wash by their mothers. So that’s their little rebellion. They pile in fresh gel every morning. It might be Saturday since they had it washed and Friday when they’re getting cut. There’s five days of gel in it and they might have had football training two nights during the week.
“It mightn’t be the nicest hair to cut but every customer is a customer,” he said, sounding more stoic than he must feel when these head owners mooch into his Ennistymon premises, which backs onto the Cascades.
He has noticed that customers as young as three are getting a bit choosier.
“From three or four years of age, you’d have kids that would come in and tell you, down to the last piece of hair, what way they want it to sit,” he marvelled.
After that, it depends on how much ownership the individual has on what sits on their head.
“You get the variety. You get some lads that tell you they just want a haircut and you have to ask them about a hundred questions to find out what they actually want. Then other fellas would give you a hundred answers before you’ve even asked them what they want. They’ve become more interested in it. It’s not just getting hair out of the way any more,” Eddie added.
He trained in Dublin before moving to Ennistymon in 2004 and establishing Barber Ed on Main Street in 2007.
However, even though he already employs Kuba, he needs another trainee barber. There’s a bit of an unemployment situation in Ireland at the moment but Eddie has yet to source a trainee, who is not too tall and can handle a scissors.
“I’m actively looking for somebody. I have a young guy coming in two days a week now. He’s thinking about it but he’s very tall for a start. I’m not that tall and my back is already starting to give me a bit of trouble.
“The taller you are, the harder it is on your back and on your legs. Very seldom you’d have really tall barbers,” Eddie noted.
Ideally, he is seeking a trainee on a work placement programme, as long as they’re not 6’4.
“You’re getting somebody in, they’re getting knowledge and you’re getting their experience eventually. I’m going to have somebody nine months into their training by the time I have to take them on full-time. By the time you’re a year and a half into the apprenticeship, you should be cutting,” he explained.
Eddie views every haircut as an advert. Heads are one part of the body that are permanently visible.
“Every haircut that leaves this shop walks down the road. Every haircut is an advertisement; every single haircut. If you’re sitting in mass, the fella sitting behind you is looking at the back of your hair. You can’t nearly do something. You can’t half do it,” he advised, having finished this reporter’s haircut and adjourned to the internet café, which is on the same premises.
Occasionally he has to keep his personal views to himself when someone comes in and seeks a haircut that doesn’t leave them looking as glamorous as they might imagine.
“I’ve often done haircuts and when they’re walking out the door, I’m going ‘Jesus, what were you thinking? What did you want that haircut for?’ But it’s like in a restaurant, you don’t have to like steak to cook it,” he laughed, just as the bell shrilled and a hairy looking character edged in.