By LIAM DURKIN
MOE’s most famous hairdresser is easing into retirement.
If you have lived in Moe there is a good chance you have had your hair cut by Steve Mayes.
And even if you haven’t there is a good chance you know who he is, as his shop in Shaw’s Arcade has become an institution in the Moe community.
Mr Mayes has been welcoming walk-in haircuts for close to 50 years, building up a great rapport with customers over that time.
In classical understatement, the 70-year-old was typically modest when reflecting on his career and standing in the community with scissor, comb and clippers in hand.
“I never really thought about it much, I guess I’ve never really got carried away with my own publicity,” Mr Mayes said.
“We just do what we do.
“I think if you are fairly honest about what you do in business the rest just follows.”
Long before his famous shop was decked out in sporting memorabilia, Mr Mayes spent years learning and honing his craft.
Remarkably, he can still recall the exact date he started his hairdressing career.
“I started my apprenticeship on February 4 1967 and completed it in 1971,” he said.
“Truth of the matter is when I was 15 I didn’t want to go back to school.
“My dad said to me ‘at least have a job to go to’, there was a hairdressing apprenticeship advertised in Morwell so I applied for it, got it, and actually liked it.”
His apprenticeship was completed under the eye of Ray Morgan in Commercial Road, Morwell, during which time he acquired a number of skills which were to serve him well for decades to come.
“When I went to trade school there was a men’s department. Back in those days apprenticeships were ladies and men’s separate apprenticeships,” Mr Mayes said.
“In my last year of my apprenticeship I went back and did night school and got my ladies certificate.”
From there, Mr Mayes moved to Yallourn in 1971, working for a man by the name of Jock MacIntosh.
After some time there, the opportunity arose for Mr Mayes to purchase the business, and thus the Steve Mayes Hairdressing journey was established.
Originally operating out of Yallourn, the business relocated to Moe in 1973 when the Yallourn township closed.
Although most closely associated with Moe, Mr Mayes remembers his time in Yallourn fondly.
“It was a good business, a lot of workers there. We used to get as many through the back door as we did through the front door,” he said.
“Yallourn was a beautiful town, lovely gardens. We lived in Yallourn when we first got married, lived there for four years and it was a great place, great people, great little town.”
While countless shops and even a nightclub have come and gone from Shaw’s Arcade over the years, Steve Mayes Hairdressing has been there since 1973.
Maintaining that sense of recall, Mr Mayes pinpointed the various premises the business has operated out of in that time.
“We first traded in Shaw’s Arcade down on the end of the arcade from 1973 to 1979 and then we relocated to the centre on the opposite side to the current shop in 1979,” he said.
“Then we relocated over here in 1997 and have remained on this side since.
“We’ve had quite a few employees, at one stage we did have a ladies salon that was further up along the arcade and employed about nine there at one stage.”
As far as haircuts go, Mr Mayes has seen trends come and go as the decades roll on.
“Fashion is a big circle, it just goes around,” he said.
“From long hair back in the middle 60s to when the Vietnam War was on a lot of people went the shorter hair, the crew cuts and flat tops.
“Mullets are back in fashion at the moment, we do a heap of mullets, kids love them.
“Combovers, undercuts – they just do a big circle.”
The stock standard ‘short back and sides’ has become a Steve Mayes trademark, although the man himself insists the modern day look is simply a take on an old style.
“We used to call it tapering, they now call it fading but it’s the same thing,” he said.
“Someone will ring up and say ‘do you know how to do a fade?’ I say ‘mate I was brought up on them!’”
Sticking with tradition of maintaining an old-school barber shop, Steve Mayes Hairdressing has offered the full complement, with shaving also on offer.
“We do a lot of shaving … it is huge,” Mr Mayes said.
“We’ve continued on with it and had a lot of success with it.
“They have made a hell of a comeback (barber shops).
“It’s funny, we used to get reps come through and say ‘barber shops are all the go in Melbourne’, and I’d say ‘they’re doing what we’ve been doing for the last 40 years’. There has been a huge resurgence in barber shop techniques.
“I think it’s a trend, it’s a fashion thing, it’s come back again.”
As someone who has been in the game for so long, Mr Mayes has also developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the industry.
“There is actually no such thing as a barber. A barber is a hotel thief if you look in a lot of old dictionaries,” he said.
“We are actually trained hairdressers. It’s a men’s hairdresser, but traditionally it is called a barber shop. If you see barber poles out the front, we’ve got some out the front here. The red and the white, the red signifies the blood and the white signifies the bandages. Apparently barbers back then were quite adept at doing some forms of surgery hence the red and the white.”
Away from the business side, Mr Mayes has endeared himself to a loyal clientele thanks his genial nature and generosity of spirit.
Countless community groups and clubs have benefited from sponsorship by Steve Mayes Hairdressing, while one can only imagine how many youngsters playing football, cricket or soccer have come through the doors with their ‘Steve Mayes Free Haircut Award’.
For children who have had their haircut, a free packet of chewy or lollypop has often been provided, all of which Mr Mayes said made up the fabric of the business.
“One thing I’ve always believed in business if you win the kids over you’ll win everyone over and that is probably one of the reasons (we have been successful) – we get along well with kids,” he said.
“The chewy thing we’ve done that over the years. The lollypop stand in the cupboard, most of the little kids that come in just know where it is, after their haircut they just go straight to the cupboard.
“We’ve had a very loyal clientele, we’ve probably got to the stage now where for some families we’re in the third generation – that is fairly humbling.
“I know one fella rang me up from Perth and said ‘we’re coming over for a holiday and the young bloke wants a haircut and we want your shop to give him his first haircut’, so things like that (are a privilege).
“With families you get close to them, hear all their stories, sometimes we’re psychologist without a diploma.
“I’ve always abided by the line you treat people as they treat you.”
Moving into retirement, Mr Mayes hopes to go caravanning with his wife Sue and quietly “sail off into the sunset somewhere”.
The service to community will continue however, with Mr Mayes president of the Moe RSL.
“These days I’m heavily involved in the RSL and Legacy, they are great community organisations and I enjoy doing it,” he said.
“Since I’ve retired I’ve become more busy in the RSL.”
The Mayes name in hairdressing will live on in Moe, with Mr Mayes son Anthony ‘Berty’ Mayes trading under Mayes Barbers.
“A lot of people don’t realise we actually sold the business to Berty and his wife Rachael back in 2006, but we still continued to trade under Steve Mayes Hairdressing in that time,” he said.
“After I officially retired on June 26, 2021 they changed the name to Mayes Barbers – they had my blessing with that.”
Mr Mayes won’t be totally lost to his famous business in retirement, and lucky customers getting their hair cut in Shaw’s Arcade might still bump into him from time to time.
“I have officially retired, but if Berty wants me to come back in if needed I’ll certainly put my hand up,” he said.
Great support: Steve Mayes Hairdressing has sponsored many community groups over the years. photograph liam durkin
Where it all started: A young Steve Mayes hard at work in 1967. photograph supplied
Where it all started: A young Steve Mayes hard at work in 1967. photograph supplied
True local: Steve Mayes has been a familar face in Shaw’s Arcade for generations. photograph liam durkin
True local: Steve Mayes has been a familar face in Shaw’s Arcade for generations. photograph liam durkin
One of a kind: Moe legend Steve Mayes is hanging up his scissors and comb.
Service with a smile: Steve Mayes is famous for handing out free packs of chewy to customers. photograph liam durkin
In his element: Steve Mayes on the job. photograph liam durkin
