HAIR NEVER STOPS GROWING

I'm dying to be an actor

Following a stage performance with his Piranha Hair Studio at Barber Society Live 2019, Barber B is returning to Amsterdam to premiere his first international performance of the auto-biographical piece Barber B: A Play of Sorts. The acclaimed barber has won countless competitions and toured countries creating hair art. But since his last show in Amsterdam, his journey has been far from clean cut. In 2021, Barber B discovered he had a brain tumor. Despite this overwhelming challenge, he decided to produce and star in a play with stories from his life. A performance is being scheduled in Amsterdam for Spring/ Summer.

The Initial Seed

In 2019, Brian Swarray aka Barber B partnered with BarberSociety to create something unique. Three-decade veteran Barber B felt tutorials were well-meaning but didn’t offer much excitement for audiences. Especially since his sights were set on inspiring young people and children to get into the profession. For such a clientfocused craft, the tutorials were surprisingly barber-centric. An idea dawned on him. Why not put on a show for an audience of trainees and skilled barbers? At the same time, he’d demonstrate his method of training new barbers developed in his Piranha Barber Academy.

So, that’s what he did. Barber B brought his technicians and his personally-trained team, Piranha Hair Studio, from Leeds. He found a troupe of young Brazilian street dancers whilst in Amsterdam, who would double as hair models. The ‘Each One Teach One’ show during BarberSociety Live 2019 was a success, pairing culture, music and dance with barber training. Full of inspiration and motivation Barber B was set to offer his skills and entertainment to a global audience. But, as we all know, the world stopped spinning in 2020. The pandemic rocked the hair industry worldwide. After the significant financial investment, Barber B was under pressure. However, unbeknownst to him, the pandemic was only the beginning of his troubles. His journey was about to become infinitely more complicated.

No Stranger to a Challenge

Legend has it that Robert the Bruce, whilst fighting for Scottish independence, retired to a cave after many defeats. Lamenting his failures, he considered abandoning his mission. His attention was drawn by a spider, which attempted to weave a web as Robert watched. Countless times, the spider fell from its intended home and the web had to be started again.

Robert was engrossed, identifying his own struggles in the spider’s persisting failures. Eventually, the spider made its web and Robert, taking heart from what he’d seen, decided to fight the English one more time. He won, in the face of great odds. In hearing the stories from Barber B... One can’t help but think of this story.

Barber B’s life is as colourful as his hair designs. He’s been a cleaner, a butcher, a mechanic, a builder and a club promoter along with becoming a master barber. He raised seven children whilst working countless hours in the hair studio, bore witness to his mother suffering

from domestic violence and saw his father pass away in his arms. Through this, life’s challenges took him to some dark places, but barbering always called him back to the straight and narrow. Although tested countless times, every challenge Barber B faced was met with determination. More still, with a sense that life’s obstacles were in fact opportunities. If navigated with the right mindset they could cultivate growth.

In the Face of Adversity

In 2021, Barber B had been sober for three years. Being overweight after a lifestyle of overwork and neglecting his health had pushed him to radical change. He’d taken to an intense exercise regime and diet. He completed an ultramarathon in March 2021, running the length of 2 marathons in 48 hours. In June, he ran up the Yorkshire three peaks. But, on the 4th of July, his world was about to change. A slight limp on his left side prompted a trip to the hospital. Following a six-hour consultation, the conclusion was bleak. They’d found a tumour. A grade 4 glioblastoma, known in the medical community as ‘The Terminator’. This particular tumour has a 2% survival rate. Due to how the tumour was growing in the brain, there was no way to remove all of the cancerous tissue. It was the same diagnosis Brian’s mother had died of at 52. He was 48.

Following brain surgery and a course of simultaneous radiotherapy and chemotherapy, Barber B began rehabilitation. Building his strength on a zimmer frame he eventually started training again. Spurred by an indomitable will, he entered the Leeds 10K on the one-year anniversary of his diagnosis. Not only did he raise money for the Yorkshire Brain Tumour Charity, he also ran a personal best. This wasn’t the only challenge he’d taken on. Barber B returned to the hair show with renewed vigour. This time, together with showcasing his unique talents in cutting hair and training barbers, he was going to tell some of the stories from his life.

New Skills

Although producing and starring in the performance has given Barber B energy - the process has not been easy. It has meant confronting past ghosts and the new spectre of the diagnosis. He’s balanced ‘going public’ with weighing up the effects that being so open about his diagnosis might have on his family. Alongside this, he’s had to learn to become a performer. In the initial script testing, they found the effects of the tumour on Barber B’s shortterm memory made memorising lines extremely challenging. Moreover, stories told with such charisma only days before became wooden as Barber B struggled to get the words right. They changed tack. Rather than develop a complete script, a drafted guide allowed Barber B to tell his life stories naturally. Who better to tell your story than you, right? This device helped remedy some of the issues with memory. But not all of them. He still got stuck sometimes. This led to a technique of prompting which had to be woven into the performance itself.

Beyond this, Barber B had to get used to being on stage with the material. The confidence he’d delivered his hair seminars with dissolved as he tried to remember sections to audiences. On he went. At local open mic nights, he confronted the task time and time again, even plucking up the courage to give a 1 on 1 performance in a sauna!

Still Growing

In a few short months, Barber B’s come on immeasurably. “I’m dying to be an actor,” he jokes now. And it’s with this alacrity that he faces this opportunity to build a legacy, whilst still learning new skills. Not only is he performing this show, but an application is underway to make the show bigger. All singing and all dancing, with barbers being trained as the performance takes place. It’s a hugely ambitious project. But with the tenacity he’s faced every other challenge in his life, he’s going to pull it off. In style.

Barber B: A Play of Sorts will be showing at The Carriage Works, Leeds, England on 21st July 2023. Follow @barberbbraintrainthejourney and @sekilynch for updates on performance times and locations.