Foray into Montreal barber shops | Hair therapy

These are intriguing, intimidating places, classic barber shops that draw almost exclusively members of a defined cultural community. On the sidewalk, customers are waiting and passers-by can sense that there is more to it than just a haircut. But what ?

photos: Karene-Isabelle Jean-Baptiste
Special collaboration

text: Nathaëlle Morissette
Press

Montreal, somewhere in 2018. Boxer Adonis Stevenson parks his Ferrari on the 24^e Avenue, in the Saint-Michel district. He is going to have his haircut “freshened up”. The young boys who are there do not fail to remind him of his chance to drive such a car. The boxer answers them while this life carries its share of risks: “Every time I step in the ring, he would have told them, I put my life in danger. Soon after, he lost his fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk and was on the verge of death.

Stories like this one, Rehul Jules has tons to tell at his hairdressing salon, frequented mainly by men of Haitian origin. Rehul Design is the typical image we have of the traditional barber shops: a decor not very polished, rather loaded even, but welcoming; lots of comings and goings and this impression of perpetual celebration to which a handful of regulars are invited. The place is both intriguing and intimidating.

In the heart of a residential area where everyone seems to know each other, the hairdressing salon naturally welcomes its share of stars – Jean Pascal, Corneille, Bruny Surin, Wyclef Jean -, as the aged barber likes to list them. 50 years old, he also became famous.

And then there are the ordinary people, but not without history, who frequent the establishment. “Just before you got there, I had a client telling me about his girlfriend,” Rehul says, trying to bury the noises of razors and the sound of Caribbean music playing loudly. “He feels she’s going to leave him. He wanted to talk to someone and he wanted to talk to his hairdresser. I felt it hurt her, I felt all her pain. ”

“Another once told me, ‘I have cancer, I’m going to die.’ ”

Endless weddings

By the end of the summer, the situation in Haiti was all the talk of the living room due to the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July, followed by a major earthquake in August. “This is the big topic. It affects us all. We all have family there. Looks like we have no respite. There is never a respite ”, laments the one who admits, however, not knowing“ much ”about his native country since he arrived in Quebec at the age of 3. Which doesn’t make him less sensitive to what’s going on there.

There are also the happy times. “Almost all my clients who get married invite me to their wedding,” says Rehul Jules while styling a silent man, intimidated by the presence of a journalist and a photographer. You speak little, it was pointed out to him. “Yes, it’s because you’re here,” he replies tit for tat, triggering the giggles of his barber. However, it is more the fairer sex who could feel uncomfortable in this place, even if the classic “welcome to the ladies” is in order here.

The door is wide open to them, says Rehul.

And these men have been following him for a long time. Some even leave Ottawa for hair “therapy”. Before the show opens on the 24^e Avenue, the followers of Rehul Jules were going to sit on his chair… in the basement of his house.

“That’s where it all started,” he recalls, adding that customers can sometimes wait up to eight hours. “It was the party! ”

But the party lacked… light. “In the basement, I couldn’t see outside and it started to get on my nerves. ”

Now, with the multiple mirrors, neon lights, recessed ceiling lights and windows on the front, the man wields scissors and razor in full light.

The great return of barbers

Further south, rue Saint-Zotique, Arturo Aburto admits to being bored, during the closing of the salons, of Danny, barber of Dominican origin at Magik Barber Shop in the Rosemont district. Here, Romeo Santos’ bachata tunes echo through the loudspeakers.

The young man who comes almost every 16 to 20 days says he tried to shave himself, without success. He broke his razor on first use, he laughs under the serious gaze of Jay, the owner of the place who refused to answer our questions, referring us to smiling Danny, a barber for eight years.

“Are you going to stay long?” Jay asked us in hesitant English, then Spanish. Uneasiness sets in. The question will come up a few times, until we leave the premises, confirming that these salons are still haunts of regulars, little frequented by women, especially if they ask too many questions …

Luckily, Danny, Arturo and his friend who came to have their hair done at Magik Barber Shop for the first time answered our questions with amusement. They are talking about customers, men of all nationalities, a lot of Latin Americans.

Places like this, sort of men’s haunts where it is politely said that women can come, are legion in Montreal. “Here, we talk about everything and nothing. Male subjects, ”Danny says seriously. Message received.

Are there more than before?

Mathieu Courtemanche, co-owner of five branches of Les Barbares et barbier salons for 19 years, confirms that there has been a craze in recent years. According to him, the “white man” had abandoned the classic barber shop where his grandfather could spend a day sipping coffee. Wearing longer hair for some decades is part of the reason for this abandonment, he says. While some cultural communities such as Haitians and Latin Americans are more short-haired, hence the large number of barber shops held by representatives of these communities.

“On our side, we had to get the guys from the hairdressing salon to the barber,” he explains.

Go to the barber to integrate

The history of barber shops dates back to the 18th century.^e and XIX^e centuries when black slaves – mostly men and sometimes women – had to cut and style their master’s hair, says Cheryl Thompson, assistant professor of creative industry at Ryerson University in Toronto and author of a book on the topic. Upon arriving in America, they became familiar with the continent’s beauty standards, such as short hair. Once enslaved, these former slaves saw barber shops as a way of making a living.

” [Aujourd’hui] these companies exist thanks to word of mouth, they do not advertise, they therefore rely on a loyal clientele, ”emphasizes the specialist. She goes further by adding that barber shops become real places of integration for newcomers who can come and meet people from the same community as them.