Phil Yates was nervous about telling his dad he wanted to be a barber. \u201cGet a trade! Don\u2019t leave a job unless you\u2019ve got another job lined up!\u201d were his mantras. Therefore, he says: \u201cI was expecting the worst.\u201d But when Yates plucked up the courage to tell him: \u201cI\u2019m kicking marketing down the road. I want to do this,\u201d his dad replied: \u201cThat\u2019s fantastic. Life\u2019s so short.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yates was 60. Did parental approval really matter? \u201cIt almost made me cry,\u201d he says. His father, a fishmonger turned factory worker, had lived on the streets as a child. \u201cIt was huge for him to drop the whole thing about being safe and secure and say: \u2018Go and do what you really want.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Yates had never even cut his friends\u2019 hair, though as a teenager, after moving to New Zealand from London, he\u2019d bleached his own, dyed it orange and got his mum, a hairdresser until she had Yates and his sister, to give him a David Bowie Starman look.<\/p>\n
Now, Yates has resigned from his marketing job at a software company and enrolled on a full-time level 4 certification at barbering school. Most of the other students were 16. \u201cI think there was a bit of: \u2018Holy shit, who\u2019s this old man?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The course was nearly finished when Yates walked into the high-end Hava & Co barbershop in Auckland and said: \u201cHey, I\u2019m looking for a place \u2026\u201d The next day, the owner came to the barber school. They had coffee, and the owner said: \u201cCome and work for me during the Christmas period. Sweep the floors, see if it\u2019s right for you.\u201d Yates has been there ever since.<\/p>\n
Yates grew up in England and was into fashion, buying paisley shirts and corduroy trousers in Wembley, north London, before the family moved to Karaka in the New Zealand countryside. It was 1973. At school the teacher introduced him with the words: \u201cHere\u2019s another one from the Land of Strikes.\u201d \u201cThe first thing I did was run away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Every single cut has to be your absolute best\u2019 \u2026 Phil Yates. Photograph: Becki Moss\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
He left school at 15 \u2013 \u201cIt was a misalignment,\u201d he says \u2013 and then home at 16, fed up with trekking in and out of Auckland to listen to bands: punk, post-punk, ska, rockabilly.<\/p>\n
His first job was working in a factory that made boxes. Then came concreting, photolithography, a company that made billboards \u2026 Eventually, he found a job at a design studio in his late 30s, doing graphic design and marketing. \u201cThere was no grand plan,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I saw something that sparkled a little bit more for me, I went over that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yates is 63 now. \u201cI love to cut hair,\u201d he says. He still sweeps floors, too. \u201cBecause, hey, I\u2019m here to work. Don\u2019t want to sit on my arse looking at a mobile phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He calls himself \u201cthe rocking barber\u201d on account of his trademark pompadour hairstyle, born about 20 years ago, and his love of rockabilly music. \u201cMusic is kind of everything,\u201d he says. He has a 1957 jukebox at home, and his own internet radio show called Grits and Grease. He also curates his \u201ccutting playlists\u201d.<\/p>\n
So why rockabilly, of all the music he\u2019s loved? \u201cIt was a completely new type of music. It has this raw, primal energy. And the look: the beautiful quiffs, boots, jeans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Yates cuts all styles \u2013 only two clients have a pompadour. On busy days, he\u2019ll have 16 or 17 clients, each with a half-hour slot. That\u2019s only 22 minutes for cutting when you take out hair washing, paying and booking in the next appointment.<\/p>\n
Yates thinks he \u201clikely\u201d has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and being on the move \u2013 his hands going nonstop with those scissors, chatting, shifting his feet \u2013 the rhythm suits him. \u201cI bring this energy to it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven a buzz cut can make me feel good. Because every single cut has to be your absolute best \u2026 You\u2019re doing a project with your hands; then you finish it and you let it go.\u201d Potters, artists, musicians might have to wait days, weeks, months or years for that satisfaction. \u201cBut I get that 16 or 17 times a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hopes one day to travel, barbering as he goes. People can change jobs, Yates says, but it\u2019s not always a new start. Becoming a barber \u201chas brought so much inner happiness. There\u2019s a vibrancy in my life that was lacking. An incredible satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he says: \u201cWith scissors, you can create something magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n
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