Straight to the cut

If there’s one man in Sunraysia that knows hair, it’s Sammy Pileggi. The owner and head barber at Slip Rocks Barber Shop chats with Teagan Bell about hair trends, the influence of social media and why men’s grooming is back in business. Pictures: Carmel Zaccone.

When did you open Slip Rocks?

March 2017, so it’s nearly going on two years. I think we had the last one, Outta Kontrol, for about five years. It’s been good.

When I opened the barber shop it hadn’t really taken off but over the past four years barbering has been really big across Australia and taken off all through the cities.

Why do you think there has been a resurgence in men’s grooming?

I suppose social media plays a big part in most things, so that’s helped a lot. Men are seeing, be it, a soccer player overseas or an AFL player they might idolise and they are starting to care about themselves as much as women do.

I have some clients who get a haircut weekly, and I have one who gets his hair cut twice a week, so I guess men just want to feel and appear more respectable.

Do you find that styles that are “in” change year to year?

A little bit. Like I said about the sports players – that plays a big role in what’s popular. But all your traditional stuff is always there, even if it’s changed small amounts, it’s still the fundamentals of the classic stuff.

What has been popular most recently?

At the moment a lot of people, especially coming into summer, are going for nice, short crew cuts down to skin, even shaved on the top down to threes, fours and twos.

Obviously, when Richmond won the AFL Grand Final in 2017, everyone wanted the Dusty (Dustin Martin) cut.

Patty Cripps (Patrick Cripps) was popular in 2018. A lot of boys came in through the AFL season wanting the Patty Cripps and the De Goey (Jordan De Goey). It’s funny, a haircut is generally named after something or someone like that.

Do you think facial hair plays a role in determining which haircut someone would get?

Yeah, definitely. Facial hair comes in and out a lot. In Australia, it’s really taken off, then it died off and then it’s come back again.

But a lot of people don’t go too out there, for example, if they’ve got a big beard. But even then, it depends if you’re keeping your beard maintained. Some office guys have beards now and they’re keeping them really nice and neat with clean lines.

Do you find that the styles that are popular differ between age groups?

Our client base in here is from around 12-year-olds, maybe a bit younger, all the way through to 60-year-olds. What you do for work and stuff like that is what determines how hardcore you’ll go with your hair and how conservative you are.

So I suppose age does play a little bit of a factor. When you’re at school, some schools don’t allow kids to have certain hair cuts. But I feel like a haircut, especially when you’re younger, is sort of a good way to start to create you as you, to establish what you like and stuff like that.

Do you have any tips for men who want to get a specific cut but are a bit nervous?

We get a lot of clients like that and that’s where the shop tries to make everyone who walks in feel comfortable, and have a bit of a laugh with them.

Nowadays, with Google, social media and what not, if you’re not 100 per cent sure on your style, you can find something like it on the internet. It always makes it a bit easier because a lot of guys don’t know how to explain a haircut.

But we get a lot of guys coming in unsure of what they want and it’s good – it makes our job fun too.

Sometimes guys can come in and they’re feeling a bit down, but then you give them a good haircut and have a bit of a laugh with them and all of a sudden they feel good about themselves.

What styles do you predict to be big this year?

It’s hard to say. Again, you could always go back to the traditional stuff – I always feel like that’ll be there, like your pompadours and getting the hair nice and short with side parts shaved in. I think that’s been around for the last two or three years and I think it’ll stay for another couple. But I suppose if Richmond wins the flag again, the Dustys will keep on coming.