Cape Town's barbershop trio sharpen up for end-of-year style stampede

Coifs, cornrows and curls are on offer as barbers catering for all walks of life sharpen their scissors for the heady rush of the festive season.

Knitted into the social fabric of the Mother City are three stalwarts of a trade that turns a blind eye to race, culture, religion or creed.

Ntakariho Asumani, 36, operates in Claremont, where the main road, station and taxi rank are a network of informal traders and street culture.

His one-way shades and crocodile skin shoes belie his tragic past in Burundi; his parents were murdered in genocidal violence in 1993 and a sibling disappeared.

Asumani came to South Africa almost 20 years ago and immediately started crafting hairstyles. "I worked very hard for another guy, until I could afford to buy the salon myself," he said.

His business, Hair Affairs, operates from a container. Asumani said: "Most of our customers are South African. We get lots of students from UCT coming here, though."

Asumani's favourite style is the mohawk, but with four other barbers working for him, many styles are catered for, starting at R30 a cut.

And it's more than just a salon. "We are the neighbourhood watch. Before, you couldn't even walk by here. We only close at 8pm and we are the eyes of this place," said Asumani.

He has been back to Burundi only twice. "If family knows you work in South Africa and they see you at home in Burundi, they all come asking for money," he said.

He has put down roots with his South African wife and their two small girls. "It is safe here. It is better than home."

Closer to town, in Woodstock, Ismail Valley, 85, has no plans to retire from the barber shop his family has owned in Alfred Street since he was five.

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It is more of an institution than a salon, and he began working there when he was 18. "I am the youngest of four brothers who also cut hair. But they have all passed on now."

Two months ago, Valley was held up at knifepoint in the shop. "They took R40 and an electric clipper," he said.

The shop was "very busy in December, but because it is a place of a traditional family with experienced hairdressers, we have customers all year".

Four of Valley's children work for the city council, and one is a pharmacist. Asked how many grandchildren he had, he said: "Now you are asking me something. I think I have about seven or eight."

A few kilometres but an entire world away is Mr Cobbs the Barbershop.

Amid the high-end stores of the V&A Waterfront, the salon run by Bob Lansdowne, 72, is as much a step back in time as it is a place to get a cut and a shave.

Unsurprisingly, he was a member of the Eccentric Club in the UK in the '60s and '70s and helped resurrect it when it threatened to fade away.

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His obsession with all things Victorian has seen the shop kitted out in reclaimed Victorian pieces, from counters to shelves and chairs.

One of the mainstays of the business are the handmade brushes. They were originally produced by a 250-year-old factory in the UK, but now Lansdowne oversees their creation in South Africa.

Today, he still scorns anything made by a machine. "Our perfume contains no alcohol. We make it using a technique that my grandfather learnt."

Lansdowne is quintessentially English, but 40 years ago he "followed a young lady to South Africa and that lady is now the wife".

His customers have included Mad Max actor Tom Hardy, and Springbok winger Bryan Habana is a regular, at R220 a time.

"They are very down to earth - not full of nonsense."

farbert@sundaytimes.co.za