An Exceptional Barber, Simon Harvey By Rex A.C. Silver

Working out of NINETEEN SALON in Glasgow Scotland, Simon Harvey is a Barber with exceptional cutting skills and a great attitude to our craft and profession. His work grabbed my attention with its classic lines and attention to detail but mostly because of its over exaggerated attack on classic styles. I was intrigued so I reached out and I’m glad I did. Great guy, great story and an exceptional Barber.

The following story is put together off a jumble of excerpts from a lengthy zoom call during one the biggest storms in the UK, in decades.

It came as no surprise that Simon is an international artist for Layrite, that explains his blown out over-the-top Pomps and Flat Tops with the 50’s surf and Rock n Roll influences that company has built itself off so perfectly. I love the cultures within our industry and the sub-cultures of fashion that inspire them, it never stops giving…

He’s a long way from sunny beach but he’s most definitely making waves, lets meet Simon:

Your motivation to get into hairdressing is a familiar story, and one that probably gets 50% of guys into this industry…

Yeah, haha. So, I was living in London with 2 models and they took me out with this guy they worked with all day, he was the coolest guy I’d ever met, from Morocco, drove a Jeep. So confident, he was the hairdresser!! He was like this is such a cool job you should dive in.

After starting out in women’s hairdressing with 16 week introduction course with Tony & Guy Brighton, Simon quickly realised that that wasn’t going to be his calling, however, being such a rounded institution, there was an element to his early learnings with T&G that piqued his interest and was the men’s hairdressing modules, it took a while for Simon to come back around to hair again and after 8 years as a Joiner, a chance encounter changed his life.

I don’t know what possessed me to do this, but I was out with friends and I told this girl I did hairdressing once and she must have thought I was a full blown hair stylist and she asked what I would do with her hair so I ran with it. I was saying, oh I think a pixey cut would really suit you, she had really long hair, anyway she said OK let’s do it!! I thought what have done, I have not done one haircut in my life! I watched a couple of YouTube videos, and she came over and I actually nailed it! She loved it, I did a very reasonable job, looking back I know I could do so much better but really, still… not bad. The thing is though, I had a life changing experience doing it. It was insane, my gut said, this is you, this is what you need to do... cut hair! I had been lost most my life trying to figure out where I belong and this was, like I said, life changing.

Simon became a qualified Barber around 8 years ago and is now 43.

Why do you love Barbering?

It’s a very OCD sort of part of the whole hair and beauty industry. It’s because it’s all about clean blends and clean shapes and you know, really nice flowing shapesand styles from the classics. That suits me to a T!! The OCD part. I am very meticulous.

It just clicked with me. I mean, with barbering and grooming men, it’s like a set procedure, isn’t it?

I really stick to hoping it’s suitable and maintainable for the client. To me it’s important to be maintainable. I just love the classics. I love how flattering it is for the client, because hair should never be a barrier between the wearer and the people around them.

Let’s talk about educating, you have been to the US, Mexico, South Korea and Europe with Layrite…Nice!

It’s been amazing, a dream obviously, New York and Japan and other places are just amazing, but I really don’t like working on a big stage. I don’t think Barbering is a performance like that. I lot of people tell me it is, but I don’t buy it, it’s not me. I don’t like shouting. All the big hair shows, the attitude, always having to be on. I just love the actual physical act of cutting hair, making nice shapes, and styling. I think Barber education is better suited to small intimate classes. That I love. I think video tutorials would be really interesting to try.

Words of Inspiration to pass on…

Trust your gut, it will rarely let you down if ever!