Posted
He doesn’t have much hair anymore, but he continues to style other people’s hair. Meeting with Roland Denaene, an 85-year-old hairdresser, to whom you shouldn’t especially talk about retirement. His job is a passion passed down from his grandfather.
It is barely 8 a.m. that Roland Denaene is already turning on his hairdressing salon. The man of 85 is always very early, always elegant and happy to receive his customers. “It’s a passion, it’s like I’m jogging. In my opinion, I’ve never worked”, says the octogenarian hairdresser. An exceptional longevity, which has earned him today the hairstyle of clients like Michel, whose grandfather already frequented the salon.
Because the show is a family affair, which begins very early for Roland, the young apprentice, at the time when young friends mainly worked in the mine. From his first professional years, Roland has few photos, just a few black and white memories, of a career that will be very rich. But times have changed and the health crisis has changed habits. “My clientele has fallen sharply with the Covid. People who were very loyal no longer come “, he regrets. A little less work for the father, enough to reassure the daughter, Corinne, also a hairdresser in Vieux-Condé (North). But she knows the story can’t end suddenly. Even at 85, there is no question of retirement.