Dennis has worked on Stanley Road since he was a teenager
Dennis Kerrigan is retiring as a barber after 60 years in Kirkdale(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
A loved Liverpool barber known for decades for his famous catchphrase is retiring after 60 years in business. Located on Stanley Road in Kirkdale, generations have come to know Dennis Kerrigan of Denny’s Barbershop.
After leaving school, Dennis got a job at the original barbershop site which was across the road, going on to take over the business in his late teens back in 1965. Through the years, Dennis has cut the hair of everyone from local, loyal customers to famous faces from across the city.
But now in his 60th year as owner, Dennis said he feels it is the right time to retire. Over the last few days, he’s gradually been closing up shop, and said what he will miss most is “the people.”
As part of the Liverpool ECHO’s How It Used To Be series, we spoke to Dennis ahead of his retirement about six decades in business and how life has changed around the barbershop through the decades. Dennis, from Kirkdale, told the ECHO: “I was about to 16 I think, when I started in the barber shop and I took it over when I was 18.
“I left school in 1962 and worked in a garage down off Great Howard Street, and I lasted about six months. My older brother was a mate of Charlie, who was a men’s hairdresser.
A photograph of Dennis Kerrigan’s old shop on Stanley Road, with the saying ‘It’ll be alright when it’s washed, honest!’ (Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
“He worked with his brother and Charlie went on his own and opened the shop just over the road, the original shop. Then he eventually left after a short time and I took it over when I was quite young,
“I’ve always been a musician as well, at the same time as being a hairdresser, so the two of them were sort of racing against each other. I was a full-time barber, a part-time musician, then I was a full-time musician, a part-time barber.
“I wasn’t always tied into the barbershop, but this was my home. If people wanted to catch me, I was always there.
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“We used to rehearse in the old shop over the road on a warm August night and be getting the beer from next door. We had a busy weekend and we’d try some new songs and Stanley Road used to be rocking.
“You could hear the band live from down the road and I do miss that, as well as playing.” Over time, the barbershop has seen much change around it, from life in Kirkdale itself to the hairstyles in trend through the decades.
In his early days as a barber in the 60s, Dennis said he remembers one hairstyle being particularly popular. He said: “Perry Como, he was a big singer in the States in the late fifties and the sixties.
Dennis Kerrigan became a barber as a teenager(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
“Charlie’s brother, Tony, he was the innovator and for the Perry Como, he used to cut the crown short and gradually it was a little bit longer, but like short at the front that was combed across. And it’s still around today.
“From the Perry Como, The Beatles got on the scene and their first style was just like an overgrown Perry Como. You just let it grow out and shaped it a bit here and there.”
As time when on, the barbershop began to attracted not just more local customers, but famous faces through its doors. Dennis said: “Charlie, my boss, his mate was Gerry Marsden’s road manager.
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“He got Gerry into the shop and so Gerry used to come down for his haircut. Charlie used to do him and Gerry’s brother Freddie, I used to cut his hair.
“The stars were gradually changing, then we had The Swinging Blue Jeans, all four of them came in, I used to cut their hair. The Hillsiders, Cy Tucker’s Friars – but without Cy Tucker, The Dennisons, it went on.
“The place was lively, these musicians and singers were coming in and I was a young lad. I used to look forward to them coming in.
Dennis Kerrigan inside his barbershop on Stanley Road(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
“We nearly got George Harrison, but it fell through late on. We just missed George but that would’ve been something else that, wouldn’t it?”
A huge part of the community for decades, a number of Dennis’ customers contacted the ECHO to tell us about his retirement. With such longevity in the area, Dennis has seen generations, many from the same family, come through his door.
Dennis said: “I’ve probably done only about four generations of certain families over the years. Right from the young lad getting his haircut for the first time, maybe about three or four and I’d probably go onto his dad, then his dad, then maybe his dad.”
Loyal customers have also come to know Dennis for his famous catchphrase, once displayed on the sign of the shop. In an old photo shared with the ECHO, you can see the saying ‘It’ll be alright when it’s washed, honest!’ and above, the locations Paris, New York, London and Stanley Road printed.
Dennis said: “I think I just used to say it naturally. If there was a problem, say their hair was sticking out all over the place and I couldn’t control it, I’d say listen, it’ll look alright when it’s washed, it’ll be sound, don’t worry about it.
“Then you say it a couple of times and you’ve got a few people behind you sitting down, it doesn’t take long before they start ripping you does it? I’d walk in the local pub that night and you get a shout from across the bar – Denny! Denny! You said it would be alright when it’s washed – look at the state of me! So it just went round and it’s just stuck for 60 years now.”
Dennis said what he’ll miss most is ‘the people'(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
After 60 years as a barber, Dennis has said now he feels it is the right time to retire. Into next week, he said he will continue to close the shop up and has already given away memorabilia that have long decorated the walls to customers and local businesses.
But he said what he will miss most about the shop is “the people” he’s come to know and see regularly over the last six decades. Dennis said: “I’ll miss them all, you know. I feel good about it and you know, I can sit down and say, well, I think I’ve done alright down here.
“I think I’ve helped out when I’ve needed to help and it’s not just cutting people’s hair. I will miss the shop, there’s no doubt about that.”