Student Jo has kindly written a blog for us about her experience working in a local barbers during the barbering week here at CB*MA:

“I really enjoyed my one day work experience working at Timinims barbers.  The moment I walked through the door I was greeted with a smile, once the owner remembered I was coming!!  Andrew had been barbering in the same shop since 1963 so I knew I would gain a great deal of experience from him.  Mike was his assistant who had been working there for 13 years but he was more like a member of the family.  Andrews mother of 92 lived upstairs so it reminded me of a scene from Allo Allo. 

The day started off quite quiet so we chatted about the different techniques of barbering and how he started off as a barber.  It was clear that they both loved what they did.  It was also interesting to see the difference between Andrew and Mike.  Andrew was more your old fashioned barber, using his scissors to parten the hair and then snip snip snip while he was chatting about the state of the road round the corner.  Mike used the more moden technique with the comb, sectioning hair as he chatted about the new opening of the latest rave club!! I sat on a little stool watching them work, some came in for short back and sides, some for a no. 1 and a small number of children coming in for their 3 monthly cut much to their horror!!   It was also nice to see they had their regulars who would just come in for a little chat and a cuppa and then off they popped to do a spot of shopping. 

All in all I had a great day of sweeping floors, drinking tea (wasn't allowed to make it incase I woke the mother) learning all about Andrews obsession with his scissor collection, watching the different technicques, using different finishing products and making new friends.  I would definately volunteer to work for them again and hopefully the next time they might be busy so I can watch them do a few different styles.”