Wanstead Hair Street

photo (38)

Just like Hay-on-Wye suddenly found itself the centre of a multitude of second hand bookshops, so Wanstead is becoming a centre of barbering.

The A1 Hair Dresser in the formerly-demolished-but-now-rebuilt Chocolate Shop (right) has been the subject of much conversation in its first couple of weeks (commenters on this site have called it “an utter disgrace on the high street” and “appalling”).

Another barber’s has opened at the peak of Hermon Hill in a former bookmakers

And now change is afoot in a longstanding barber’s on the High Street.

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photo (39)The barber shop at the Snaresbrook end of the high street, cunningly known as “The Barber Shop”, is to have a pretty major-sounding refit after it changed hands. Motorbiking 77-year-old Alan Wiseman, who has run the shop for the past 20 years, has now retired after spending many decades cutting hair. The new owner is Emma Huseyin, who has been working at the shop for the past six years.

Her aim over the next three months is to “transform it into a traditional barber shop, offering hot towel shaves with 1950s style chairs, reclaimed wooden floorboards and a ‘heritage’ shop front to give it that Wanstead village feeling”.

For that many people will thank her. For others, of course, the defining Wanstead experience is to be had at the Wanstead Hairdressers on Woodbine Place. But there are plenty of heads to go around, even without a Hay effect.

7 thoughts on “Wanstead Hair Street”

  1. I’ve been getting great haircuts from Alan and Emma for a few years now. Great cuts for only a tenner plus tip.
    Note, though, that Enigma is closing down.

  2. Any truth in the rumour that the new pet shop/hardware store “Heads” & Tails are to open a barbers concession within their newly refurbished store?

    If not their missing a trick. You obviously can’t have too many barber shops in one high street.

  3. Have had 2 brilliant child haircuts done at the A1 Barbers in Wanstead – the barber took his time, did a really stylish cut to our specifications, all for £5 each! Having tried to find a place where we could have great haircuts at a reasonable price (there are many male heads to deal with in our family!), we are thrilled that this is now available right on our doorstep…

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