Barber aims to give old shop a cutting edge

As a teenager following around his grandfather - the man who started the Sri Dewana barber shop chain - Mr Muhamad Syuhadak knew this was his calling, too.

"I loved the feeling in the shop, talking to the barbers and customers. It was like a home away from home," says Mr Syuhadak, 38.

After learning the ropes from his grandfather, he managed to find his own space to set up shop in Marine Terrace, where he grew up.

When The Sunday Times interviewed Mr Syuhadak in 2010 for a National Day special, the barber had only just started his business, Nuri Cahaya - which implies in Malay a small bird flying towards the light - for a few years. Ten years later, he has taken his shop to new heights, and given it his own spin.

While the seats for the customers are still the old model and he continues to do cuts with scissors - the old-school style, he says - the shop now has wireless clippers, offers trendy gentleman's haircuts and has edgy pomades and hairwax on sale.

The fusion of the old and the new keeps regulars coming back, while attracting new customers - forming a clientele of all ages and races.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, business struggled for a bit, in particular when hairdressers and barber shops were ordered to close for several weeks during the circuit breaker period, says Mr Syuhadak, who got divorced in 2017.

But he and his new wife Siti Noorhaliana, 39, and their three teenagers from his wife's previous marriage, managed to tide themselves over thanks to the Covid-19 Support Grant, for which Ms Noorhaliana, who works in retail, was eligible. Ms Noorhaliana recently came on board as co-owner of the shop, to help manage finances and run the shop, while Mr Syuhadak plans to take a back seat and focus on haircuts.

The couple have big plans for the shop's future. They constantly keep up with haircut trends, and have recently begun offering "zero fades" - cutting the sides down to minimal length - and other now-trendy gentleman's haircuts at $17 for an adult, compared with $25 to $45 elsewhere, says Mr Syuhadak.

"We want it to be affordable because we are in a heartland residential area," says Ms Noorhaliana.

This has helped bring in the customers again, after the dip earlier this year.

They also plan to revamp the shop this year and give it a new name. "Currently, it means a small bird, so as we have evolved we are thinking it's time to change. My wife suggested the albatross, so we might use that," says Mr Syuhadak.

The couple plan to redo the decor of the shop, while retaining the fusion feel, and are looking to expand to another two or three shops. They had originally planned to do so this year before the pandemic hit.

In the future, Mr Syuhadak hopes one of their children will take over the shop: "I want to pass it to someone who will take care of clients and the reputation of the shop - that barbers here are friendly and kind."