Men’s Hairdresser Ghost Sign

I love this sign in one of the old shops along Sydney Road in Coburg. Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to one of the owners of the neighbouring shop, Al Nada Sweets. She told me that the Men’s Middle Eastern Hairdressing Salon had opened in 1978, run by a gentleman from Tripoli, who passed away just recently. He had run the shop for about seven or eight years. The shop was in the front but he had lived out the back.

 

 

 

The entrance of the shop has been changed as one can see from the remainder of the old wooden door frame. Another ghost sign, painted on the front glass window, shows that the shop had been a printing business at one stage, but I don’t know if that was before or after it was a Men’s Hairdressing shop.

 

 

Nowadays it is a vibrant activist hub, hosting poetry evenings, concerts, discussion and reading groups. Recently I attended a concert there by a visiting Palestinian oud player. I wonder if the owner of the barber shop would have enjoyed the nostalgic songs of homeland and loss which moved all of us there, whether we understood the lyrics or just the emotions.