John's Hairstyling Woodhouse: Sheffield barber still going strong as popular shop marks 50th anniversary

Sheffield barber John Milton quit his job on The Wicker to open his own shop - and he’s still there 50 years later!

John felt it was too good an opportunity to turn down when his mum heard that there was a barber selling up on Beighton Road, Woodhouse, in April 1974.

And it turned out to be a good decision, as John has just marked the 50th anniversary of his taking over what is now John’s Hairstyling.

John, who lived in Meersbrook at the time, had been working at Scott’s, on The Wicker, where he had done his apprenticeship, and at the time his mum, who was living in Hackenthorpe, was working at a greengrocers in Woodhouse.

Among his mum’s customers was the man who owned the barber shop before John did. After hearing he was a barber, he asked her if John would be interested in taking over the shop when he retired.

John decided to go for it, and opened up there for the first time on April 8, 1974.

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He said: “It was a Mr Varley who ran it before me, I remember. I think most of his customers came to me when he sold up and retired. And because I was so young, and because there was only one barber here in those days, I think we attracted some more, younger customers, too.”

He said he remembers doing a lot of mullets and Beatles type of haircuts back in those days of longer hair. He says mullets seem to be coming back, but the main cut these days is ‘skin fades’, with very short back and sides. His favourite to do was 1980s ‘curtains’ haircuts, but he says he likes all hairstyles

But John still has a cross section of customers, from pensioners to youngsters, with some of those older customers having come to John for their haircuts for decades.

“When I first started I was on my own,” he said. “Then I took someone on to work for me. It was a little village back then. It’s changed such a lot and is more built up now. They’ve put the precinct in since I’ve been here.

“I still enjoy working here. I’m a people person and it’s great chatting to people while you cut there hair.”

Now there is a second generation of Miltons working in the shop. Son Chris started working for his dad as a youngster and decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps. He now works with his dad full time. John himself is now officially part time, but says he still finds himself going full time some weeks if someone is on holiday.

He also has two daughters who used to work for him as Saturday jobs, but one is now a teacher, and the other a nurse.