High Wall hairdressers came in 2 forms, Bernie or Ronnie.
There was an earlier 3rd one I recall, on Causewayside near the Junction with Grange Road . He was a right bastard. He lured you in with his fancy D.C comics and whilst you were engrossed in the tales of the Green Lantern, he was at you with the scissors. Left you looking like a right fanny.
When you went to school after a haircut you always git the pish ripped oot of you. Wouldnae matter if it had been styled by Vidal Sasoon himself, it had to be ridiculed by the entire playground.
Neither Ronnie or Bernie were exactly "Vidals". They would however have the audacity to put pictures of Tony Curtis on the wall. If you asked either of these jokers for a "Curtis" you had a good chance of leaving the shop looking like the bastard child of Ian Curtis and Curtis Stigers (i.e sporting a mullet that hangs awkwardly).
Ironically Tony Curtis real name was Bernard. I recall that Arkos once went to Bernie for a Bowie cut. I'm still not convinced that Bernie actually knew who Bowie was though.
Now parents liked Ronnie and Bernie because they were cheap and handy. As you got older and had more say in things, you went to Bob's Continental at Tollcross or Woods up at Drummond Street. I had to pay the extra out of my own pocket, but it was well worth it.
A few years back I took my wee lad for a haircut in Blairgowrie. There was a wee cheap place full of farmers. Right traditional looking gaff, still had the wooden till, bay rum, wooden board for the bairns to sit on, the lot. I thought braw, just like the auld days. Ended up having to drive all the way into Perth to get a repair job done before the wife got home. He honestly looked like that wee lad in the picture up the top.
That is the thing about nostalgia, if something was wrong the first time around, chances are it will not have changed. That is also why Woods is still there going strong.
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3 comments:
Yeah, haircuts from our youth. I've had several dodgy haircuts in my time. I remember my Bernie Bowie-cut well. I was right into Bowie at the time & thought I would get a Bowie cut. Trouble was, the only hairdresser I went to was Bernie. Bernie was (is) a lovely guy, but I think he never really found his right voaction in life. whatever it is, it sure isnae hairdressing.
Well, I went into Bernie's, clutching pages torn from a copy of some lassie's Jackie magazine, showing an Aladdin Sane period Ziggy in all his glory. Anyway, I showed Bernie the photaes & asked for my hair to be cut that way.
Some time later after a session with the scissors,various razors & plenty of hairspray and lots of blow-drying, I looked in the mirror and saw to my horror a haircut as far removed from a Bowie cut as you can get. Mind you it was sticking up. In fact the bastard took months to lie flat. I sometimes think I had the first punk haircut in Edinburgh. In fact it looked a bit like yon haircut those Jedward boys from X Facor are sporting.
And when I got back home and rang the bell, when the door opened, my dog looked up at me and started barking! Even he could recognise a bad haircut!
Cheers!
Arkos
Talk about haircuts. When I wiz still wi the troops we hud a barber called Charlie who hud served as a drummer boy in the first world war, that shows you how old the bugger wiz! He hud real shaky hands and it wiz aye a wonder that you didnae lose an ear or two. After you hud told um what you fancied he used to shove a pan drop in yer gob and then git on wi the work. It wiz aye the same. Two snips oh the scissors behind yer neck followed by one snip at yer hair! It wiz fuckin traumatic! It didnae matter what you asked for it always looked the same. In fact the whole fuckin camp hud the same haircut. In fact it wiz better to say"number 1 Charlie" which meant number 1 on the shears which wiz the bare wood. Otherwise his normal haircut wi the scissors wiz what we called whitewalls after tey American tyres white at the sides black on top! Aye ah wiz wi Arkos when he wiz gettin his Bowie cut, it wiz well funny!
Teeheehee....i'd forgotten all aboot the trauma of childhood hair do's and youse've just made aes sputter weetabix over ma laptop screen.
Ah used tae git dragged tae Walter at Mr John's in Corstorphine. Again, a nice guy but a total fanny wi the scissors. And he had pictures up o guys who looked like George Best and Paul Macartney. They cats woulda nivir been seen dead in Mr John's.
And Tony Curtis himsel coulda gone tae ma school and would still have had the pish ripped oot him ivry time he got a haircut. What wis that all aboot? We all got one once a month and we all had to suffer the slaggin firra a coupla days after it. In ma heid, even the primary teachers used tae have a snide wee chuckle at us.
Jedward Bowie, ridiculed by his ain dug. Quality.
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