Thread: All women should be banned from barbershops!!

We definitely couldn't get away with that here in Canada because we try to accommodate everybody.
I find the last two sentences say a lot about who this gentleman is.

'All women should be banned from barber shops' - Telegraph





'All women should be banned from barber shops'

A Liverpool barber shop has been accused of breaching equalities legislation for banning women. Martin Daubney talks to its defiant owner about why men need their own space



Johnny the BaBa (in pink hat): 'There are very few places left where men are allowed to be men' Photo: The Vain Photography | Carl Sukonik



By Martin Daubney

10:36AM GMT 26 Nov 2014



A heavily-tattooed, street-talking Irish barber has become the unlikely target of a hate campaign – after he took the decidedly un-PC decision to ban women from his barber shops.

When Johnny the BaBa – real name Johnny Shanahan, 36 – opened branches of his Barber Barber shops in Manchester and Liverpool, his men-only door policy initially delighted his image-conscious punters.

But his stance soon attracted criticism, and his defiant comments – including “I don’t think there’s any place in a barber’s shop for women, period” – caused predictable, delicious ire among the terminally outraged Twitter minority, who angrily clamoured for his shop to be shut down.

For his unapologetic stance – which he insists isn’t anti-woman but pro-man – Johnny has received death threats, having previously had his shop vandalised and even soiled tampons posted through his door.

Yet despite all this – and perhaps in part even because of it – his men-only door policy has been a soar-away success with his punters, who daily queue around the block at both branches for a £24 trim.

20 Nov 2014



Inside, customers are free to enjoy “ male banter”, plus there’s a bar, poker, cigars and his stylish sidekicks called the Scoundrels, who look like tattooed extras from Boardwalk Empire who’ve been on the bourbon.
I catch up with Johnny – dressed for work in a three-piece suit and bowler hat – in a noisy Manchester café as he prepares for a busy day, his tattooed fingers bearing his motto - STAY TRUE - cradling a morning brew.
“People disagree with me on this issue, but I’m sticking to my guns,” he says. “I suppose we will get criticised for this ‘til the day we retire, but we won’t change.
“Men’s barber’s shops belong to men. I fell in love with men’s barbers when I was a child, my grandad used to take me to a barber’s shop on Saturdays.
“Men had very little money and couldn’t afford to go the pub, so they went to the barber’s shop, talking about sport and having general men chit-chat. I started working there aged 13, sweeping the floors. I never left. I worked there nearly 15 years.”

By focusing on traditional technical excellence and contemporary hipster style, Johnny turned a failing business into Ireland’s most recognisable barber’s.
Then last November, perhaps ironically, it was Johnny’s wife who encouraged him to take his men-only policy to the UK mainland.
“My wife is a great woman she is very supportive and said I should give it a try,” he said. ”I spent a year going back and forth to Manchester and the rest is history.
“My customers love it: they feel a part of something. We don’t do appointments, we do walk-ups, it doesn’t matter who you are. If you’ve got £24 in your pocket you’re a VIP to me.
“We have them all: the big names, the gangsters, judges. For every one person that doesn’t like it, there’s a hundred that do.”’
^{The Barber Barber shop in Liverpool (Photo: The Vain Photography)}
But in August things turned nasty after the Liverpool Echo reported that a woman had been asked to leave the shop while her boyfriend was having his hair cut. “I don’t know how they’re getting away with it," said Harriet Brignall, 18. "I was mortified. It’s like a step backwards in time.”
Local Labour councillor Nick Small weighed in to the debate, telling the paper: “Barber Barber may well believe they’re being ironic or edgy, but I believe that by banning women from the premises, they may well be in breach of equalities legislation.”
Johnny says: “It was ridiculous, they were like a dog with a bone. It kicked off on Twitter and all of a sudden we were being compared to Islamic State. People were making me out to be some sort of club-wielding Neanderthal who goes home and beats his wife up.
“But 99 per cent of women think it’s a great idea – it’s just one per cent of Left-wing idiots. Most of these women seem to spend all their time trying to emasculate men.
“People were calling me a pig and all because we don’t allow ladies in for a service we don’t provide, but we’re not trained to do their hair. What’s the problem?"

Women, Johnny adds, are allowed over the threshold. "They come into the shop every day – they just don’t stay. I’d say 85 per cent of our voucher sales are from women.”
Social media and local press hostilities escalated, resulting in a decidedly unsavoury protest featuring feminine hygiene products.
“On Twitter they said, ‘I hope you get firebombed’ and ‘I hope you die’ – it’s keyboard warriors and I didn’t take them seriously for one minute,” says Johnny.
“Then I came into work one morning and there were 20-30 tampons – they weren’t used but they were dipped in red paint or something. They’d been thrown at my window and posted through the letterbox. That’s what you’re dealing with.”
Yet Johnny’s booming profits – and plans to open four branches in London next year – prove his USP of “having a space where men can be men” has chimed with modern blokes.
As a final poke in the eye for the equalities mob, tonight the self-made millionaire is up for a Junior Chamber InternationalEntrepeneur of the Year award.
“Men feel more comfortable in men-only spaces,” he says. “They enjoy it. There are very few places left where men are allowed to be men. Here, they feel like part of a club.
“We’re not for everybody, but if you try to please everybody, you will end up pleasing nobody. That’s one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned in life. If you try to please everybody, you’ll die frustrated.”