THE MANY LAYERS OF MATTY CONRAD WITH REX.A.C.SILVER
He kicked off his Barbering carer at the beginning of the rise of social media. His insights are invaluable on many levels, and on so many facets of our craft and he graciously passes this knowledge on to others along with amazing Barber skills, on his education platform, and globetrotting stage shows. GQ Magazine call him ‘The Coolest Barber on Instagram’, he calls himself ‘The World’s Luckiest Barber’. This is typical of the way Matty uses selfdepreciation, in a very healthy way I must add, and most often with hilarious rhetoric, when referring to himself or his success. It’s like he has an auto-check turned on that helps keep him grounded. It works; for a guy who could afford a little ego with the accolades, awards and success he has achieved in his career, you won’t see any of that here, just a down-to-earth Barber from Victoria, Canada.
LET’S MEET MATTHEW CONRAD.
I have been doing hair for over 20 years. I was a style deficient kid from a family that scored a -3 on the style scale. It was tragic. I grew up with a bunch of lopsided home haircuts and hand me downs from a brother almost 10 years older than me. Basically, the first 18 years of my life were one big, long awkward phase. When I was 18, I was working in a restaurant as a bus boy; at night all these people would come by after work and drink and have a good time. They were well dressed, they were stylish, they were cool…these people were hairdressers. This style deficient kid wanted to be just like them.
So, I went to hair school (I still remember the look on my dad’s face when I told him that I wanted to do hair for a living). I fell in love with the art form and the culture. I was always creative and good with my hands, so it was a great fit that way… but I didn’t know
anything about style, so I just copied what everyone else was doing. That worked out pretty well because I got really busy, but I never really felt like I knew enough about what I was doing. So, I started working for different companies to get as much free training as I could. About 10 years later I owned 2 salons had a staff of 30 and a successful stage artist career travelling all over the world.
But as things grew, I realised that I was still just trying to fit myself into the mould of hairdresser or what I thought that was supposed to look like. Basically, I looked like Rufio from the movie Hook. Then my grandfather died… we weren’t incredibly close when he was alive, but I remember sitting at his funeral and listening to all the things that were being said about him, and about the kind of man he was. Then my dad read out his high school yearbook quote… “I will never let anyone be more of a gentleman than I.” For some reason that resonated so deeply with me.
“Trends…First they are ironic, then they are edgy, then they mainstream.” It made me start thinking about life, about legacy, and about our place in it all. I took a long hard look at my life and let myself be honest for the first time; I realised
12 Barber Shop Year 10 Issue 4
