The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
DECEMBER 1 couldn’t come quickly enough for hundreds if not thousands of Clare men whose hair had grown feral since the beginning of lockdown.
Ennis barber Micheál Malone has been welcoming customers back and says business has been quite brisk. “It has been very busy, it’ll be very busy for this week, people are getting Christmas haircuts as well.”
Customers are very happy to finally get tidied up and get a part of their routine back. “They’re delighted to get back and to see us as well, it’s a bit of normality as well. Six weeks is a long time with people getting a haircut every four weeks.”
In business for the last 25 years, he says this has been by far the strangest and most difficult one. “We’ve only worked for six months of the year really, to be honest about it. It has been strange for the staff as well, you’re not seeing them. The first lockdown was for three months so we didn’t see them apart from a bit of training to get ready to reopen.”
Like many areas of life, people made fundamental adjustments to how they dealt with the growth of their hair, when going to the barbers wasn’t an option. “A lot of customers haven’t come back who were coming in before the lockdown.
“Some of them have texted me and said they weren’t going anywhere else, but a lot of people bought hair clippers during the first lockdown and got used to cutting it. One fella with a shop here in town said to me we used to sell dishwashers and washing machines, but now it’s hair clippers.”
However what he calls ‘repair jobs’ are now part and parcel of things for barber shops, with many people’s skills not equal to their enthusiasm for DIY cuts.
Micheál loves having a chat with customers and talking about the sporting events of the day was something he missed. “I missed the Monday mornings, talking about Clare playing the day before and things like that.”
Having never been out of work before, 2020 saw a major change of pace for Micheál, but he did cope well with the second lockdown in particular. “The first one I was painting, washing the floors, doing online courses regarding Covid, we had to do a lot of those. But the second one was better, I was more relaxed in it. “Credit where credit is due, the funding from the Government has been good.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
