Ash Weller – Creating Opportunities

This is the last episode over 4 issues, from Australian Correspondent and 2020 Hot Shot winner, Ash Weller. What an amazing journey this young man has had. What an amazing young man he is!

Spiritual, creative and caring are just some of the very apt adjectives I like to use when talking about Ash. His stories have been great reading and we finish on a high for sure. Please check out his former stories if you haven’t got the hard copies of Barber Shop Magazine, go to issuu.com and read the digital versions.

I have to tell you this much, to keep his staff on, he sacrificed his HOME and rendered himself homeless….almost! Ash bought, decked out and has lived in a HiAce Van for the last 8 months. He drove the van from Adelaide to Sydney and back to experience the Hot Shots House and boy did he learn a lot about himself. This is the final chapter of van living for Ash and the beginning of a new chapter for himself, and his staff and business…

Firstly, I would like to thank all the readers out there that have been following my year-long correspondence over these 4 issues. I’ve really enjoyed writing my years thoughts and outlooks, sharing collections and future plans with you all, and I’m grateful to have had this space to be super real and deep. I have expressed my thoughts that at times, have been super emotional... but hey! what a year can do when you get backed into a corner (covid). On another note... how cool to have the this all published!

I look forward to looking back on these articles, what an experience I’ll always cherish! A massive thank you to Rex, Linda and the MOCHA PUBLISHING team for allowing me to dribble on and on, ha-ha it’s been real!

Alrighty ladies and gentlemen, let’s take it back to where we left off last issue:

Travelling back to Adelaide from the hotshot house, cruising, after an unreal night’s camping under the stairs, full of excitement and drive from the week’s activities and mentor sessions and man, how things have just fallen into place! Well, when I say falling into place, I mean we ‘created opportunity’ and ‘opened the mind’ to all possibilities and then stuff happens!

TEAM TIME

I got back into the shop with a burst of energy and my staff had a look of ‘oh s@#$…’ ha-ha ‘what the hell has Ash come up with!’ I sat everyone down and we did our own ‘breaking barriers’ activities, we all met up at our local Glandore basketball court, (I can’t shoot a hoop for the life of me…but I was showing weakness to make everyone’s walls come down,) we laughed, talked and of course a few beers were had. We wrote down our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats all together and passed each other’s around and had a real raw-talk about our directions, wants and goals. It was such an amazing way to bring everyone down on the same level and to have the floor to be able to talk without a wrong answer or judgment. For me as a boss, it was the best way to gage where everyone is wanting to go or grow in their personal lives and work life and I think that’s super important. And for me to make good, calculated judgments on moves moving forward.

VAN-LIFE AND A SNAP LOCKDOWN

So, a month or so later we entered a week snap lockdown here in SA, I was in my van at a caravan park, so went out and bought all the stuff to keep me entertained through lockdown but… kinda’ got kicked out at the last minute due to their super strict policies. I was driving around for 30 mins till lockdown thinking where the hell am I going to go?! but called up a mate and they let me camp out in their front yard for the week. THANK GOD! I was thinking this lockdown was going to be longer than just a week, so I decided to make better habits then I went in with. And boy did I work my arse off! I somehow found a new shop and house combo literally across the road from my current shop in Glandore, Adelaide!

NEW SHOP WITH A LIVING SPACE: EXIT VAN-LIFE

It pays to be a consistent, hardworking and community-based business in your area as everyone in our neighbourhood gave us such high references to our new landlord. (We are tattooed and out there looking characters, so I get it) ha-ha Our current shop is 62m2 and our new shop is a massive 25m2!!!! So, you could say we are downsizing! But not downsizing the workload at all. We’ve even got a garage that’s part of this spot that will be our photography studio! And of course, we will have a darkroom space! This is super exciting as I always wanted to have my creative passions in one place! We will be adding new services and creating a gender-neutral space. Our female Clientele has grown to 20% over the last year I’ve been promoting my love for female hair. Well really, since day dot we’ve been nothing but gender neutral, we feel as a team, the label barbershop limits us for our future plans and direction so watch this space for all things hair! And hey I miss my lady clients Our new space is a super boutique looking frontage and you’ll have to follow us to see what vibe we are going with, it’s going to be a place that’s been inspired by all my travels, simple and creatively. My experience living in a Toyota HiAce van for the past 8 months has definitely played a role in this new space, tiny living and what you have you use.. EVERY LITTLE THING! I would like to say a massive happy 7-year birthday to Born Barbers! I was 24 when I started this shop, a place that was designed to build the Community we have today, a safe house for the area, a place to socialise, and to meet new and exciting people. I built it around passion for all things hair, music, antiques and history.

So please enjoy some of these amazing images of where it all came from, next issue BarberShop will drop a page especially for me to show off the new shop!!

SUMMING IT UP

I would love to give a shout out to all within the hair industry that have or currently are in lockdown right now. I really feel for all my hair sisters and brothers affected. It’s affected us all so differently in each state, but I want to confirm that we are all in this covid battle together, We need to band together and push on as we do as resilient hairdressers and barbers, we are a strong breed and always find a way to bring calmness in troubled times to our communities.

I end this year-long correspondence hoping you all have the time (which we have all had more time than we ever have) to share kindness, knowledge, resilience and understanding. To be the place your community comes to express, listen and learn.

Spread nothing but love and compassion.

Kindness is the new currency,