ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — They’re propped up next to the pens and office supplies, in a jar on a table in Maurice Lahey’s office.
The 77-year-old plucks them out proudly.
He quickly squeezes the handles together, rapidly back and forth, showing how the mid-century manual clippers work.
In today’s world of electric everything, it appears an ancient artifact.
“I learned with these hand clippers,” Lahey says.
They belonged to his father, who would cut Lahey’s and his brothers’ hair.
One day while his father was at work in the Bell Island mines, then 13-year-old Lahey picked up the clippers and cut the hair of all five of his brothers.
From that day on, Lahey became the family barber, and then the neighbourhood stylist (sometimes earning about 25 cents per cut, though he never charged anything), and before long, he got his first job at a barber shop across from his school.
"A lot of times, we get both sides of the stories, if it’s somebody cheating on somebody. You know who hates their boss, or who drinks on the job or who’s messing around.” — Maurice Lahey
When he was 16, his mother bought him his first electric clipper from the Sears catalogue.
That same year, he dropped out of school and began hairstyling full-time.
This month, Lahey marks 61 years behind the chair.
In 1969, after a few years of working in barber shops in St. John’s (and a short stint in Kitchener, Ont.), Lahey opened his own salon on Pennywell Road.
Today, he has clients who’ve been with him for over 50 years.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, you’ve got some stories to tell.’ Well, yeah, I could, but people tell you stuff in confidence,” Lahey says.
“A lot of times, we get both sides of the stories, if it’s somebody cheating on somebody. You know who hates their boss, or who drinks on the job or who’s messing around.”
True to his clients, you won’t find any of those stories in his book, “The Man Behind the Chair,” to be released in November.
Instead, he writes about his career: from the Bell Island beginnings, to the heyday of the 1970s and 1980s when he was running three salons and a couple of other businesses besides, to his present-day joy in working seven days a week next to his daughter.
A family business
Lahey has worked non-stop despite health concerns over the years, mainly stemming from Crohn’s disease, which has taken almost half of his bowel.
But he says he feels great today.
“Other than the ol’ foolish bit of old arthritis, or joint pain, like everybody has.”
Throughout the years, Lahey has won numerous hairstyling awards. The business has also branched out to become a go-to destination for wigs and toupees, but when asked what he’s most proud of about the business, his voice breaks off.
“My daught—,” he turns away and sniffs. “My daughter,” he says again, and points at the computer screen behind him where security cameras display various angles of the salon.
“There she is,” he smiles.
He says Lisa Lahey is a better stylist than he’s ever been.
“I keep telling everyone, ‘When I drop down, I hope it’s behind the chair.’” — Maurice Lahey
As for Lisa, she just laughs and says she has “learned to handle him over the years.”
The 45-year-old says there was never any question that she would work in the family salon.
“When it’s a family business, everybody chips in. Mom used to spend her time coming out on weekends doing the cleaning, and helping out behind the scenes. Of course, as children, we were all coming out, too.
“I’d spend my time playing with the colour bottles and the colour books, going through everything. I think I was 15 when I used to come out on Saturdays, and it was my first job — sweeping hair and answering phones. I grew up in this place.”
Maurice Lahey describes it as a family-oriented, “cradle-to-the-grave” kind of salon in which couples bring their children in for their first haircuts, and those children grow up and continue to bring their children, and so on.
That model seems to apply as much to the longtime staff and owner as it does to their clients.
“Everybody says, ‘Well, why don’t you give it up?’” says Lahey.
“I said, ‘I don’t know, maybe next year, maybe next year,’ and then I decided a couple of years ago that I’m not going to. I’m just going to keep going.
“I keep telling everyone, ‘When I drop down, I hope it’s behind the chair.’”
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
MORE FROM JUANITA MERCER
