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 that even though I was good at hair there were things about it I hated. I HATED BLOWDRYING. You have no idea how liberating it was to say that. I hated colour… took too long… the list went on and on. Now I’m not saying that those things are bad and I’m not saying that people shouldn’t love doing those things… What I am saying is that for ME and for my personality they are not things I enjoy. What I DID enjoy was technical haircutting; loved classic men’s haircuts, loved old stuff. LOVED it. One day about 8 years ago I realised that I was actually a barber. Keep in mind at the time barbering wasn’t cool. It wasn’t guys with beards and tattoos that rode motorbikes, but it was like discovering MYSELF! I’ve never felt so much like I am living the most authentic life I possibly can. I no longer feel like I am trying to fit into a crowd or pretend to be something I am not. I made it my mission to try and bring pride and dignity back to the barbershop. There were only a few others around the world doing it at the time but now there are so many it’s hard to count them. Somehow along the way I have been fortunate to befriend and work alongside some of the best in the industry and have been called a pioneer, and icon, and an influencer… but truth be told, I am just a barber (and I’ve never been happier).

Please tell us about your Barber Shops

My original barbershop was a love letter to my grandfather. For me, it was about bringing back pride and dignity to men’s grooming. Since the 60s, men had been relegated to the hair salon as second-class citizens, an afterthought. I wanted to create a place that brought back dignity, pride, and community to the men’s grooming experience. I designed it, helped build it, and decorated it with some of my most treasured antiques. Vintage chairs reclaimed floorboards, old lockers, reclaimed hotel window frames, real gold leafed lettering, taxidermy, my 1942 Harley Davidson — all these things were placed to create a uniquely masculine experience. We call it a heritage shop — not retro, because a retro shop is recreating a fixed point in time and isn’t allowed to evolve. A heritage shop respects and pays homage to the past and brings it into the present. We did classic haircuts before they were cool and created an environment where young barbers could build a career and make a decent living to support their families. Most important of all, we have become a part of the fabric of our community, giving back whenever we can, donating our time and our resources to the people who need it most. We now have 3 shops and 2 bars. One is called Saint Franks which is a bar that has a speakeasy barbershop in the back of it, the other is a vintage inspired Tiki bar called TORA TIKI both located in Victoria). All told we employ roughly 40 people many of which have been with us since the very beginning in 2010. The design aesthetic I am most drawn to is the postindustrial WW2 era of the 1940’s. If truth be told, the barbershop was the most selfish project I have ever undertaken. I simply surrounded myself with all the things I found that made me feel something about our heritage and history. I love old stuff, especially barber chairs. I probably have one of the world’s largest personal collections of vintage chairs ranging from 1891-1955.

You are passionate about education and being an educator. Tell us more about this.

For me education was critical early in my career. When I left hair school, I could barely describe to you what layers were and like most people when they get started this, I felt like a bit of a fraud. That created a very real fear for me, so I started taking classes; any class I could get my hands on. I realised that the more I actually learned, the more I knew, the less I was afraid! I started to view education as a means to grow more confident behind the chair, but it was also costly and time consuming. Eventually I figured out that working for hair care companies was a great way to get education for free if you were willing to teach it for them. So, I started working in the corporate side of the hair industry as an educator. In my almost 20 years as an educator, I have seen a lot of people get up on that stage and there always seems to be two types of platform artists, the one that comes across as let me show you what I can do, or the one who says let me show you what YOU can do. I always strived to be the latter. My goal is to remove the fear that many people have about cutting men’s hair because they are intimidated or feel like they can’t do it well, due to an over exposure of educators who just want to show off on Instagram; echo chambers full of impossible to reproduce haircuts. My education is often over researched, very information and theory driven, and is almost 100% focussed on practical haircutting in the shop for actual patrons. Compared to so many barbers that are out there these days.

My work is not showy or flashy or exceptional in any way, it’s just GOOD. I don’t strive to be the best I just want to be good, and I want other people to be good. I want them to be less afraid, I want them to love their job and I want them to feel confident standing behind their chair so that they can take care of their patrons! Because for all the grandeur we have made barbering into in the last few years, I still believe that is the most important part.

Tell us about your love of photography

I started doing photography in the early 2000’s because I owned a shop and I wanted to be able to put photos on the wall of the work we were doing there instead of posters from other people’s companies. I was inspired by people like Anthony Mascolo who was both the creative artist and the photographer, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be something to be able to compete in the various hair awards using my own photography! (A few years later I was doing just that and managed to collect a number of fairly prestigious awards). This was long before Instagram and Facebook were a thing. When I started, the digital SLR was a relatively new thing and the ability that it gave people to learn photography on the fly was massive. You could see the results of your lighting instantly; you could learn how to adjust the camera controls and you could digitally develop your own work. To be honest my first few shoots were complete garbage but I kept at it and eventually I figured out many of the skills I needed to be a fairly competent photographer. By the time Instagram showed up I was already quite a bit ahead of the curve, so it was pretty easy to stand out. My work was fairly unique and my low-contrast, gritty, black and white style was just what I liked.

The most important thing about developing a brand is developing a consistent look. Which sounds easier than it is when your brand starts to include more than just pictures of haircuts.

I always tell people that branding is just developing a lens through which you see things and through which you show other people things. So having a style that is authentically yours is the first and most important step. Don’t copy anybody else’s if you can help it! While we all find influence and inspiration from each other’s work there is always something unique that you can bring to it. Create your own style I have a few online resources that are designed to help people with their photography skills, and I find it is a much more common request for in person classes these days.

Tell us about your Victory product range.

I worked for a number of product companies for years and I was often involved in helping to develop or test products for them and I was always thinking “why don’t you just make……. Or this should be more like………” eventually I decided I had to put my money where my mouth was. I started the product line long before there was a grooming range. The shop was called Victory Barber & Brand from day 1 so the idea was always to be more than just a barbershop. When we started the shop in 2010, I was personally making small batch beard products in my kitchen. Oils and balms were not quite a thing yet, but I had found some interesting recipes in some old apothecary books, and they were very popular with our clients! … (Fun fact - I handmade all the beard oil and beard balm until just last year. It was a big job). After that we started making shaving tools and BARBERMADE aprons… which have been unquestionably our biggest success. What started out as just a convenient uniform for our team has become a staple for the whole industry. We likely have the best-selling apron in the industry.

Fall in love with the process. Painters don’t paint because they want a collection of paintings, they paint because they find some sort of fulfillment in the process of creating their art.

In 2017 I finally launched a grooming range starting with the POMADE that I had designed, because it’s what my grandpa would have used. It is full of completely unique, premium formulations, that are all designed and tested by barbers to help every man create a diverse range of styles that express his own uniquely handsome style. Typically, start-up brands simply repackage existing products with their own labelling. I don’t really believe in that. I needed to develop something of my own. Each product undergoes a ton of testing and revisions until we feel like it’s exactly what we need to create the kind of work we want to do. I designed everything about it from the ground up, even learned to design the packaging; every element has my fingerprints on it. Our line has grown so much in the last few years even managing to survive covid closures and a global manufacturing crisis. We are currently found in almost a thousand shops across North America and have been able to work with some of the biggest names in barbering.

Your work envelops many modern hairdressing and cutting techniques. Where do you see men’s grooming heading and the skill set we should be learning to be on top of our game.

A lot has changed in barbering in the last decade. We are in a period where a super trend (classic haircuts & fades) is subsiding, and a more fractionalized trend approach is taking hold. This always happens when a trend becomes too mainstream. There will be people desiring a more individualistic look; this usually means length and texture. Historically following a period of uniformity there is a push towards rebellion; contrarian is cool. I am seeing a lot of flow mid length hairstyles and texture coming back. So, focus on your scissor work! In the 60’s when the unisex hair salon was born barbers were ill equipped to create the longer moppy looks that the Beatles made popular… because to that point they were too used to doing short clipper cuts. Don’t be surprised if you see perms show up… mullets go mainstream... moustaches too… first they are ironic, then they are edgy, then they mainstream!

60 SECOND SPEED DATE WITH MATTY CONRAD

Favourite Destination in the World: ITALY… literally anywhere in Italy especially Sorrento .

Favourite Food: Sushi

Favourite Movie: BAND OF BROTHERS It’s not really a movie …more of a mini-series… but it wins hands down

Favourite Book: Fiction - The Count of Montecristo Self Help - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F$#k

Favourite Book Non-fiction - Cash (Johnny Cash’s Autobiography)

What/Who are you reading right now? Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harrari