Bad health trims career

By Shaun Inguanzo
HEART attack and kidney failures have cut short the career of Noble Park’s longest-serving barber.
Brian the Barber has trimmed, cut, shaved and coloured his way to 22 years of golden memories with Noble Park’s residents.
Brian, 68, was cutting a customer’s hair six weeks ago when he felt a strange sensation.
“Fortunately (my wife) Carol was there and I asked her to finish the sections around the neck, because I couldn’t let him walk out half-cut,” the dedicated barber said.
“I rang my specialist who said to me, what the hell are you talking to me for, you should be in an emergency ward.”
Brian underwent surgery for his heart, but the general anaesthetic caused his already-weak kidneys to fail and sentence him to a life on dialysis.
“I have to go down to Cranbourne three times a week for four hours each time, but by the time I leave here it’s 12pm, and when I leave there and get home it’s 7pm,” he said.
“I can’t run the shop less three days of my takings.”
Brian migrated to Australia in 1961 from England and trimmed hair in Leonard Avenue before opening the Ian Street store.
He refused to reveal his surname in a bid to be forever remembered as Brian the Barber.
Brian said his customers were “cast iron” in their dedication and said his shop walls were covered with postcards.
“Everyone of these people has been around the world, from Tokyo to Malawi and remembered the old barber here in Ian Street,” he said.
“It makes me bloody proud of my customers.”
Brian said he would lament the closure. “It’s going to leave one hell of a hole in my life,” he said.
He is now asking the community to help him clear the more than 5000 books in the shop’s Book Exchange.
“It would break my heart if those books go to pulp,” he said.
To inquire about the books – which are selling at $1 each – contact Brian the Barber on 0412 778 530.