Beards are back in fashion and the popularity of a more hirsute appearance among mostly young men has prompted a resurgence in the number of traditional barber shops in Perth.

While hairdressing courses are available, there is no formal training on offer for budding barbers in Western Australia, creating a shortfall in the number of skilled workers available.

“There’s not many spare people floating about who can do the job,” said Westons’ barber shop owner Justin Howley.

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He and business partner James Howe are setting up their own barber school, training up to 20 students at a time in the art of barbering, which includes cut-throat shaving and beard taming.

“A lot of the clipper work and especially beards and stuff like that is completely different to the set of skills you need for hairdressing,” Mr Howe said.

Overseas barbers have helped to meet some of the demand for barbers in Perth, but it is a short-term fix.

“If they’ve got just a working holiday visa they can only do six months in one job before they move,” Mr Howley said.

“And you would rather take on local people if you could, it’s just the skills set isn’t there at the minute.

“There are a lot of people interested in doing it, they just don’t know where to turn to because the ladies side of thing seems to be the focus.

“As soon as we put it up, I think we’ll have quite a lot of interest.”

Mr Howe said the training would be open to anyone – young or old, male or female.

“Girls can come and become a barber if they want to, I’ve worked with many female barbers so yeah, open across the board,” he said.

“Rick here has only been cutting for six or seven weeks now and he’s managed to pick up the skills pretty quickly, it’s just having an eye for detail.”

Run by the boys for the boys

The men are still working on a syllabus for the barber course but Mr Howe said it would be a mix of theory and practical work.

“We’ll focus on doing the beards and the shaves; real traditional barbering mixed with modern day barbering, kind of cover over everything a man needs when he comes into a barber shop,” he said.

“There’s still a fair bit of theory work, all your health and safety and things like that.”

Manicured manes do not come cheap, barbers charge up to $50 for a cut while a beard trim will set you back around $20.

“It’s nice to sit in the chair and be pampered,” said a customer who gets his hair cut every two to three weeks.

“I come to Westons because it’s an old school barber shop and it’s run by the boys for the boys.”

Mr Howe said they had tried to build an atmosphere where men could relax.

“A place that they feel comfortable to come to really as opposed to sitting in a hairdressers where women are getting their highlights done,” he said.

-ABC