The Grand Master by Rex AC Silver

Donnie Hawley might just well be responsible for the Modern Barber movement and resurgence of the Barber and Barber Shop as we now know it today. If you follow the historical timeline of Barbering you’ll see that after the Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls styles of the 80’s coming out of unisex salons, in the early to mid 90’s there was a shift, and at ground zero in California was young Rockabilly on a mission behind the chair.

He started a scene and trained and influenced and army barbers that grew and spread out across the globe. He developed a range of products out of necessity just to cut and style hair properly in his shops. That product LAYRITE, now sits in most Barber Shops around the world.

LET’S MEET: DONNIE HAWLEY

Donnie Hawley started Barbering in 1984 at the age of 14. “My stepmom’s family had barbershops and there was always a chair on the patio out back” Donnie started.

“I can still remember the excitement I felt back then, I knew it was the start of my barber journey… my stepbrother was a jock and on the football team and that year, the whole team decided to get Mohawks, and they did it there out the back of our house on the patio in the barber chair”

“I jumped in on those Mohawks that day and well, that was the beginning for me right there, right then”

“I was rocking the Rockabilly lifestyle myself even then, but I had really curly hair, so it meant a lot of time in the bathroom with a blow-dryer and a round brush man… a lot of time ha-ha”

It’s this dedication to the Rockabilly sub-culture, fashion and looks from the 50’s that will see Donnie’s career flourish and what will become his signature haircuts that he perfects in the early 1990’s, 30 years ago, will become staples in the repertoire of barbers today in 2022 as we still do our modernised versions of the pomp’s, the flat tops the slick backs and more.

“Back in the early 90’s there was 3 of us dedicated to the sub-culture movements, I was all about the hair, Jimmy Shine restored and customised cars, he was a Gothic and Chopper Dave the motorbikes, they call us The Loveless, we weren’t trying to bring some piece of time back like the 50’s, we were just doing our thing”

We had endless customers as Guinea pigs you know, tested on humans not animals

Donnie would go set up a chair at festivals and shows to get his brand of barbering out there, it took some time and he had to build up a following one cut at a time.

The first magazine he graced was a Car Magazine and the first sponsors to help him get to the shows and festivals was a hub-cap company.

He opened his first Barber Shop in Costa Mesa in the late 90’s with only one chair and even took a night job until he got busy enough.

“Back then there were no barbers to hire. The Beatles changed everything man, The Beatles changed everything. Up until the 1950 barbershops and barbers were everywhere. It was a great industry think about it, the 60’s roll around and the Beatles decided to grow their hair and business stared to dry up for barbers, add Vietnam and the 70’s; unkept long hair and beards were in the barber went extinct just about. When the 80’s hit it started to change but men were going to salons and the hair styles and cuts were exactly that. When we started thing going in the 90’s we had to start all over again. The barbers left were too old, the new generation was about to hit, but it grew slowly”

BUILD YOUR OWN ARMY

Donnie went about training barbers and soon he had a dedicated following of subjects willing, keen, and eager to learn. His dedication to the principals of barbering were pure and insisting on using a straight razor was probably the hardest challenge it terms of getting staff heads around their barber journey beginnings.

“No one would shave around the hair-line and over the ears, ha-ha, it was tough man! But we got there. My approach is very old school, very traditional and disciplined. Great barbering and great customer service and client satisfaction. The hot towel shaves and precision around the hairline is important to me and my way. My shops were a homage to old traditional barbershops as well. Cream and brown chequered tiles on the floor, you know the first magazines to feature us would say it was very 1940’s Chicago Gangster”

You can see the in the images here of the shops that the floors might be cream and brown chequered, but the well lived-in space has over the years, with memorabilia and bits and pieces moved away from the traditional Chicago look, and with Donnie’s personality and that of the movement he was building, morphed to what looks like the barbershops of today that you see all around the world.

The difference is, today’s shops look like this from day one where as Donnie’s Hawleywood’s Barber Shops took decades to fit out like this, a piece here a piece there, a lamp here, a matchbox car there. Every piece in every store would have its own story to tell and each a place of importance in the history of the shops themselves.

The Busy times and the birth of the modern barber movement as we now know it today.

“We were booked 4 weeks in advance, every one of us. We would not let anyone leave, no-one got out without making an advanced booking on their next cut. No-one. That’s how we did it. Then we expanded.”

“Barber Shops were growing in popularity and opening up and soon we were doing shows all over. You must remember, this was the late 90’s, no social media back then. We had to pick the right shows, the right festivals and we did we got lucky, we took my signature cuts out there man, our original signature hair cut poster is so old there is no art work for it, the one pictured here is from the early to mid 90’s, We were just like a band ha-ha, but really, I have always called my show team The Band Of Barbers, to this day, the Layrite team that show and tour globally are called just that”

Donnie was not immune to the inevitable. Even without social media to farm customers from, he had some of his top guys go it alone and take

his business and his business practices with them and open their own shops. Often close by, often looking very similar and often a little cheaper, we know this song.

“Yeah, I know, it’s gonna happen. Doesn’t mean I have to like it… at the time it breaks your heart and hurts. Emotionally and financially but at the end of the day I guess I am and always will be a part of their journey and to some extent their successes too”

“I would say, conservativity, I am probably responsible for over 100 Barbershops opening around LA alone from my stable of Barbers over the years, I am very proud of that, very proud but it does still hurt at the time”

LAYRITE

Donnie started making products out of necessity, for no other reason.

“Man, you just couldn’t get your clippers through the hair. The wax’s and pomades around at the time like Murry’s and Black and White were next level and wouldn’t budge, it was torture trying to wash the wax out of the hair with olive oil… it took ages. I started out making my own shampoo and water-soluble pomade and wrapping them together… you had to buy both, it was a combo package. Just so our customers would have hair we could cut when they came it. It was that simple, that’s how it started.”

“It was cool, you know the early days of formulating, we had endless customers as Guinea pigs you know, tested on humans not animals’”

That was 22 years ago and now Layrite has 24 products in the range, oh… and lovers of Layrite, a scoop, you heard it here first, some new stuff coming out very shortly!

Sold on every continent and to over 28 countries Donnie’s hand has inadvertently influenced barbers all around the globe and continues to do so each and every day by the work they do using Layrite products.

COME ON MAN, TELL US THE STORY…

“All right, all right it’s true Rex, it’s a true story… OK, I’ll tell it. So I’m making this stuff and selling to my customers and this customer keeps coming in and buying it, Christopher the Christian Rocker, in a Christian rock band you know, he had the unruliest hair you can get… really hard to style, and anyway, he’s says Donnie I just love this stuff, I love it, it’s the only thing that can make my hair lay right. Layrite!!... true story ha-ha”

@layriteofficial