Baldy Barber offered much more than just a haircut

MICK MORIARTY, otherwise known as the Baldy Barber, officially hung up his scissors on Saturday as the city’s oldest barbershop closed its doors for the last time.

Having spent 59 years in the business, Mick explained it was no longer sustainable to keep going, due to rising costs and the move from high street trade to shopping centres in Blackpool.

The shop was opened in 1937 on Merchant’s Quay by Mick’s late father, Peter Moriarty. He opened a second shop in 1960 in Blackpool, which continued after the Merchant’s Quay one closed in 1981.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Moriarty explained that his father went bald when he was 27 years old. “And I started to go bald when I was still playing minor football, I was 21. I’ve had people look at me and ask how I knew how to cut hair!”

He hadn’t planned to take over the family business, he said. “I went to Dún Laoghaire in 1963 to become a Christian Brother. I was a year-and-a-half there before I left, but I wasn’t too fond of school so I went into the shop and started working there.”

When he started out, haircuts were half a crown, and one shilling and sixpence for a child. Through the years

he has remained committed to keeping prices fair, and now charges €18 for a haircut, which he notes is a lot cheaper than the €25 charged elsewhere in the city.

“I’m always conscious of families who have very little money. I always wanted to make sure people got the right wages too. But the price of everything has gone crazy, and it’s going to have a big impact on the workforce. People earning good money are still short of the amount they need for a house.”

Rising costs were a large reason for the closure of his business, he said. “I paid 19/6 for my first pair of scissors in 1966, they were 7in bluesteel and you’d send them off to Lonon to be resharpened. Now it costs €25 to get scissors sharpened, you might as well just buy a new pair.”

He said that Vat thresholds should be “done away with, and everyone on the same playing field”, explaining that currently barbers and hairdressers are in the same Vat bracket as hospitality, despite there being “no comparison between us, it’s totally wrong”.

“I explain it to people that to make €1,000 we have to make €1,135. Next July it will be going down to €1,090 you’ll have to make, but it’s a joke that it will take that long for the Vat reduction to come in.”

There should also be more done to protect small Irish businesses, he said, rather than blanket measures which also benefit big chains as they can afford to pay more tax without subsidies.

Mr Moriarty said that there had been huge changes in Blackpool over the 59 years he had been working there. “Business has dropped 40%, and the whole area has changed. The banks and pubs are gone from the street. Everything is different now, you have to go to the shopping centre to get a cup of coffee.

“I backed the shopping centre opening up in Blackpool, but I didn’t want to pay €38,000 a year for rent there.

“We also have problems with parking now, and the flooding in Blackpool still hasn’t been sorted. If it gets flooded again, the value of property will go down big time.”

He explained that the model of doing business has also changed. “My shop has always been a surprise, you don’t know who’s going to come in, but during covid we had to start taking appointments.

“After covid it was just frightening, so many people had bought their own machines to give themselves haircuts. It was all number twos, but they didn’t want to be spending money on barbers anymore after that.”

In general, he said the cost-of-living crisis has had a huge impact on his customers’ pockets, while rising costs have also affected him. “Our electricity bill would be nearly €300, and that’s without any heating.”

Asked what he will miss most, Mr Moriarty said the people he has met over the years. “The chats you have, people in the area popping in just to talk about a match, or to let you know someone in the area has passed away. Lots of these new places have no personal touch like that.”

Over the years, he has not been afraid to make a stand, he recalled.

“I was the first barber to bring in a smoking ban, a year-and-a half-before Micheál Martin did it,” he said, adding that the now-Taoiseach mentioned him by name at an event when asked about the ban on people smoking indoors, and said that he was following Mick’s example!

“I never smoked myself, and people would have your eyes destroyed with cigarettes, sometimes they’d hold them under the barber cape and the fabric would be smoldering.

“Customers threatened to walk out when I banned it — one fella said to me that I’d never again see him walk in, then eight months later he was back in with an oxygen bag attached to him. He apologised to me in front of all the customers.

“There was a time when we had a health clinic in the shop, we had a nurse in and it was a great success. People could come in for a check, two people were sent to hospital after it and one had to get a bypass.”

Over the last nearly 60 years, he has cut the hair of famous actors, comedians, and even the son of a sheikh, he said, adding that he still sees some of his father’s old customers, though “a lot have passed on now”, and that multiple generations of many families have been getting their hair cut at his shop for decades.

He added that his staff member Donncha O’Connell, who has worked at The Baldy Barber for 26 years “is the best barber I’ve seen for kids with special needs since my father. People come from Midleton to get their hair cut by him.”

The shop made international headlines including on Fox News in the US when Donncha cut the hair of a boy with additional needs in his mother’s car, because he didn’t want to come into the shop, he recalled.

Many of these customers and families who have been coming for generations are “heartbroken” that the shop will no longer be open, Mr Moriarty said. “One man who’s been coming in for a long time asked me ‘where will I go now?’ There’s a six-year-old boy who is devastated, he doesn’t want to get his hair cut by anyone else.

“I’ll miss it,” he said, explaining that he has begun writing his memoirs, after his daughter suggested he should be writing his family history and all his tales from over the years. “I’m getting my hip done on Thursday, so will have a lot of time.

“I’m also going to see Leeds United play for the first time ever, and I’ve been following them since 1963.”

He said he looks forward to spending more time with his wife in retirement, adding that they both enjoy golfing in Bandon which he hopes to get back to a soon as he is recovered from his procedure.

He said she is pleased he is retiring. “Mary knows the place has been bad recently. When it’s your own business, even while I’m on holidays, I’m doing returns for the bank, I’m worried about has the place been busy enough that we can pay out the wages.

Though he is from Ballincollig himself, Mr Moriarty added that he plans to come back to Blackpool for visits often, to stay in touch with his staff, including some who have come and gone over the years, as well as many of his customers.