LUIGI

Aylesbury

BD. So the thing I was going to ask you first which is the obvious question to ask is why did you decide to become a barber?

Erm, I come from a very farming village on the south of Italy and the general idea was if you have nobody else to look after you, if your mother and father was working the farm, automatically in them day there used to be the shoe maker, tailor, barbers and blacksmith. The top four job in Italy. And automatically when my daddy, I was seven years old I remember that, turned round and said “what you want to do?” I turned around I said shoe maker. I only lasted one week. I started on the Monday and on the Saturday I told the boss where to go. I was seven years old. So a school friend of mine, we are still friends now, who was a barber told me it was great, we can still play outside when we are not busy. So when my daddy ask me again I said a barber. He said that that was a good job and ask me which shop I want to go. So I told him the shop where this mate of mine was working and my father went and told the boss and he said ok. So half past eight to twelve o’clock was school and then four o’clock to closing I was in the barbers.

BD. Do most men in Italy then go to the barbers to get shaved?

Shave, haircut. The idea was in them days you would sign a contract with the barber for family purpose. So if you have one son you make a one months contract for a haircut and two shaves for you and one months haircut for the children you was to pay him 100 weight in wheat if you were a farmer. Because it was a farming community see, so by the end of the3 season the barber had more wheat than the farmer and then he would sell it and make the money. In the winter the barber was the centre of the community people would go and read the paper and make friend. That was nice for a young boy like us to hear so many story, the first world war, the second world war, it was fascinating. Plus you was learning the job but we were losing nothing of our childhood, play wise.

BD. At that age what were you learning to do in the barbers shop? Was it cleaning up?

You started out learning to sweep and of course in those days there was no running water so it was tradition that for each customer you would wash the brush and change the water. Then after four or five months we used to have a special box made because we was too short, we used to put the soap on the customer and we used to work out how ready the beard was for the boss to shave. After that you would start with the razor over the back of the neck of the customer, to start to get your confidence. And after the boss would see you were very confident with the razor he used to say “Right its time to bring your dad for a shave. It must be your dad”. And the most important thing, he must come on a busy day, so it would give confidence to you and give confidence to the customer. And when you finished the next customer would want to sit on the chair and that is where you would start. Then there used to be the idea of the haircut, so the boss, what he used to do for start, to give you confidence, he would force you to do it all the time to build your confidence. Then he used to have the clipper and you used to do exactly the same. Then the boss used to say “Right, cut a little bit around the customers ear.”  After you had done that slowly it was progress, first a little bit around the ear and then a bit higher,” ‘til the boss was sure you can do the job. So he would supervise you and if he saw you do something you are not supposed to do he would rectify it straight away. If he had no patience he would come out with a slap around the ear. If he didn’t he would say stop it, wallop you round the ear and say now start again. By the time you reach ten, twelve years old you are nearly professional. I was a fully qualified barber, I was twelve years old. That was when I left school. And after my thirteenth birthday, on my fourteenth birthday I left home, I go work up in the north if Italy in Turin. I worked there for a year and didn’t like it very much so I move back home again, then I go work in the city. And I work there for three years. 1966 I decide I have enough and that is when I come in this country. I arrive in England the 27th May 1966.

BD. And were you looking for a job in a barbers then?

No no no. the only way you can come in England in them day is with a working permit. I used to have a cousin of mine who work in Stoke Manderville who come in here the year before me in 1965, and I ask him to find me job. And Peter, my old boss, he used to require staff, he just lost one so he asked if he can send me working permit. And they send me one. And after you do all the paper work and everything else I book the date and I left home on the 24th of May 1966. I arrived at Victoria Station on the 26th. On the 27th, it was a Saturday, I done my first day work in England for Peter. He never retired but unfortunately he died eleven years ago. And I worked for him from 1966 to 1975.

BD. Is that when you set up your own shop?

No. I left in 1975 after I got married and I go work in a factory. I don’t do it because I like the job, I do it more for financial purpose. I work there for seven years and four months. Then we got made redundant. The company shut down. I got, my package, was £6000.

BD. Was that enough to set you up as a barber?

No. Peter ask me if I want to go work with him. And I said yes so I worked with him for 18 months from 1982 to September 1984, when I opened a shop. And this year makes 20 years now.

BD. What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you as a barber, in your professional life?

I suppose I can say I’ve been the lucky person. I mean, I like the job. I never had any complaint. But most importantly I never cut anybody. I cut myself but not the customer.

BD. If you ever go back to Italy do you ever get your hair cut back there?

Except when I was young, I used to go back there when I still had friends there. But now when you go on holiday you have a hair cut before you go on holiday. So I never really come to have a haircut in Italy.

BD. And is there a barbers still in your village?

Just one left. From twelve barbers in one small village there’s only one left now. And unfortunately the whole traditional barbers is going. We have only two of my generation in Aylesbury and then Bedford, Peterborough, Luton, all from the same town. We all barbers. Altogether we used to be about twenty two in England, barbers all come from the same town, all in England.

BD. And have you all ended up marrying English girls?

Yep. One, Peter’s son-in-law, we started the job together but apart from that when we retire no-one will take. We learned the hard way. Now they can’t come to us and say I am a barber. There is no meaning.

BD. What is the meaning of the word barber?

To shave you. That is the meaning. Today the younger generation say I am a barber, but you go there and say I want a shave and they say “Pardon?” They don’t know how to do it. For the reason they teach it and automatically the whole generation of the barber it’s dying away. Like I’m in England in Aylesbury there used to be so many old barbers and it was a privilege, but after they are dead nobody took over. Now the girl they got for the man and the boy they got for the lady. I enjoy it. I will carry on do it. When come the time I say I have enough, then I pack it in. I got another ten years to go before I retire, and after that if I enjoy it and I’m still healthy enough to do it, I will carry on.