Cutthroat Brothers Barbershop Te Awamutu’s Tyrone Hunapo-Clark, who owns the newly-opened business with his partner Tangiwai, cuts client Kelly Heke’s hair.
Tyrone Hunapo-Clark and Tangiwai Anderson are on the cutting edge.
The Te Awamutu couple opened Cutthroat Brothers Barbershop about two weeks ago and have been averaging 75 haircuts a day between the business’ three staff.
“It’s been just hectic in here,” Tyrone said. “We’ve just been so overwhelmed, in a good way, with the community’s support.”
It reflects a national trend – people who were cutting it fine to get their hair done before lockdown have been appearing in droves all around the country now that alert level 2 is in force.
While they would normally expect to accept walk ins, it’s currently so busy for the Cutthroat team that clients are booking their appointments on the business’ Facebook page.
In most cases, they then visit the next day to have their hair cut.
Social media is proving a useful tool for helping keep on top of things.
Tyrone and Tangiwai – Te Awamutu College high school sweethearts – told the News it is a dream start.
“This is our first business, we’re from Te Awamutu and this is where we wanted to be,” Tyrone – who has been cutting hair for about six years – said.
He added adhering to social distancing directives was also on their minds and there was a real sense of family developing between staff and customers.
And, on that front too, Tyrone’s brother Rihari is the business’ third staff member.
Among the social media messages they’re receiving are requests from young people who are keen to get into the industry.
So, Tyrone said going forward that is on his radar and he wants to establish educational opportunities to allow that to happen.
“I’d really like to establish those educational paths to allow the next generation the chance for that to happen.”
Tyrone and Tangiwai moved home to Te Awamutu from Brisbane about a year ago with the idea of starting their business.
