Turkish-style barber says Plymouth has enough Turkish-style barbers

'That’s enough now - not any more'

A Turkish-style barber says Plymouth now has enough Turkish-style barbers. Shape Up Barbers has just marked a successful first year in business in Plymouth city centre and manager Dilman “Danny” Jalal said customers are delighted at the quality of the haircuts and shaves it is offering.

But he said the city may now have reached saturation point with about 10 barbers in the city centre and another 14 in the North Hill and Mutley Plain area. Danny said: “That’s enough now - not any more.”

A quick look at the West End’s website reveals a number of places offering haircuts including City Barbers, Cool Cuts, Cutting Edge, D&D Barbers and Salon, Fade Zone Barbers, John’s Barber Shop, Luka’s Barbers, Magic Scissors, Style Centre, The Hair Factory, Turkish Style Barber and Projects, plus FH Cuts Studio and New Crescent Barbers at listed on Google.

From North Hill and Mutley Plain, Google lists Class Barber, Hill’s Barbers, The Boss Barbers, Dino Barber, Focus Barber, Turkish Barber, Mutley Barbers, New Style Barbers, Istanbul Barbers, Goodfellas Barber, Spike Up Barbers, Headline Barber, Kings Barber and one just called Barbers.

This year the Financial Times said that there are 20,000 registered barber shops in the UK with thousands of them branding themselves as Turkish.

The FT said barbering is the fastest growing sector in the British retail economy and that many of the barbers offering Turkish styles are not actually from Turkey, but countries such as Pakistan or Albania. Danny revealed that many of the barbers in Plymouth are not Turkish, but, like him, hail from Iraq.

“I’m a refugee,” he told PlymouthLive. “I’m from Iraq. We have four other people here as well. We are all from Iraq, but it’s a Turkish barbers, Turkish style.”

He added: “We are all Iraqis but we say it is Turkish style, people don’t know we are Iraqis. But Iraq is not far from Turkey and English people like Turkish barbers.”

Danny said he trained in his native Iraq and worked there for a decade before coming to the UK as an asylum seeker in 2017. He wasn’t able to work until he was given refugee status and allowed to live in this country permanently.

Danny grew up in the city of Sulaymaniyah, also known as Slemani, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, 1,299km from the border with Turkey. When he arrived in the UK he first he had to live in Oxford, and was then moved to Cardiff.

Danny said: “Then after one month I came here, to Plymouth. The Home Office sent me here, they said I had to come to Plymouth.

“But I like it here, it’s nice. I have English friends. And I like the job, I like the customers, talking to them, that helps me speak better English. And if you like the job you do a very good job.”

Shape Up Barbers is owned by Rasoul Hawkar Abdulla, also originally from Iraq. In its first year the barbers’ has been a hit with customers young and old, and Danny said: “It’s going very well. But we want more customers.”

Danny said Shape Up Barbers has been praised for the quality of the haircuts it provides. It also offers hot towel shaves, and ear and nose hair wax removal in addition to the popular styles such as skin fades, v-shaped tapers, number two back and sides and, Danny said, “we do lightening as well”.

He added: “We do a very good job here, at a good price, and if we give a good service people will come back. People like the styles, some have even been to Turkey and had a nice service and liked that.

“I have customers that come in every week. I have customers that come from Tavistock and further. We have kids, older people, everybody.”

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