'I'm UK's longest-serving barber – I've been trimming locks since the swinging 60s'
'I'm UK's longest-serving barber – I've been trimming locks since the swinging 60s'
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Britain's longest serving barber says he has no plans to hang up his scissors yet - after nearly 65 years of cutting hair. Melvin Eley, 76, started work as a Saturday boy at the shop in Stetchford, Birmingham, in 1961, aged just 13. Over the past six decades he has kept up with the trends by perfecting mop tops, perms, mullets and fades.
He took over the business 43 years ago and continues to work 20 hours-a-week trimming the hair of his loyal customers. Great-grandad-of-six Melvin boasts a client list including footballers, politicians and musicians. The prostate cancer survivor’s longest-serving customer has been visiting the shop for a staggering 66 years.
Dad-of-four Melvin says he will keep cutting hair for as long as he can - despite pleas from his children to retire. The pensioner, who has no formal training, prides himself on keeping things traditional - with a time-warp interior and trims from just £7.
He said: “It is the same shop it has always been. I put a bit of emulsion on it now and then. “I was cutting hair when I was about 14, customers would say ‘come on, have a go’, so I did. “I was just happy that I had a job doing something I enjoyed when I left school.
“I’ve always been one of those chaps who was happy enough stopping where I was. I’ve never had another job.”. Teenage Melvin was hired by original owner Tony East at the start of the swinging 60s, when mop tops were all the rage. He bought out the business in 1982 and renamed it Melvin’s Gentleman’s Hairdressers.
