Jobseekers flock to be barbers but more need to train to meet growing demand in male grooming

Barber shops are as trendy as male grooming itself but not enough jobseekers are becoming qualified barbers, despite record numbers of apprentices in training.

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INCREASED interest in male grooming has led to dramatic growth in enrolments in specialist barber courses – but there are still not enough people entering the trade to meet demand.

Barbery the Craft of a Barber Academy chief executive Anna De Sanctis says the number of people training as barbers is “phenomenal”.

“People say barbering is a fad but that’s certainly not the case – men won’t go back to sharing space in a female salon,” De Sanctis says.

“Barbering is a skill that can take you around the world.

“Every single one of our kids gets employed (after finishing their qualification).

“As a career, it’s huge.”

More students, including apprentice barber Denzel Carlos, are being trained to work in the male grooming industry.

Barbery artistic director Johnny Georgiou says, unlike hairdressing, barber services are largely tool focused.

“Hairdressing and barbery both use scissors but with barbers there’s a lot more machines involved – clippers, trimmers, skin foilers (shavers) and things like that,” he says.

“The bulk of our work is machine-based and so you need a totally different skillset (to hairdressers) to use all those different tools.”

For the past two decades, there has been a persistent shortage of hairdressers and barbers in Australia.

Barbers must complete a Certificate III in Barbering to become qualified, learning techniques such as cut throat shaving, beard trimming, freehand clipping and carving, in which designs are shaved into the hair.

A rise in male grooming is leading to a rise in barber shops, and demand for workers to become qualified.

TAFE Queensland hairdressing and barbering teacher Trish Nielsen says apprentice barbers enjoy a high level of responsibility early in their training.

“Hairdressing apprentices do a lot of shampooing or blow drying (for clients) before they are allowed to cut hair,” Nielsen says.

“But the first thing barbers need to do is know how to cut, so apprentices are doing that straight away.”

Nielsen says while barber qualifications are popular among school leavers, there is also significant interest from people with hairdressing qualifications that work in barber shops and want formal recognition of their skills.

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The “cigar and scotch” image of the occupation, where it is acceptable for workers to show “a few tattoos and some piercings”, makes it a popular career choice.

“It’s not just for guys,” she says.

“Girls are taking it up too because they can see it’s a cool industry to be in.”

Apprentice barber Denzel Carlos, 19, started doing haircuts on friends and family,at school where he discovering he preferred working with shorter hair lengths.

“Barbering is an ever-changing and evolving industry,” he says. “At the moment, it’s almost like the industry is going through a renaissance and is attracting a lot of attention.”

Originally published as Jobseekers flock to be barbers but more need to train to meet growing demand in male grooming