Roo MacKinnon and Mark Reilly have been friends since school.
Both originally from Inverurie, they first bonded through skateboarding and, like most young kids, they had ambitions of becoming world-renowned rockstars.
They later moved to Aberdeen as teenagers and though music hadn’t quite worked out for them by then, hairdressing did.
Roo and Mark built extensive experience both in salons and barbershops within Aberdeen, refining their craft for cutting along the way, before eventually deciding to open their own place.
Today, the pair run Hometown Barbers in Aberdeen’s Claremont Street, but they still don’t take themselves too seriously.
“We’re really chilled out in the shop and never takes ourselves too seriously,” says Roo.
“Everyone’s happy to come in and have good craic.”
Learning the trade
Reflecting on the pair’s friendship, Roo explains that being involved in the north-east skateboarding scene sparked his and Mark’s curiosity for hairdressing.
“Me and Mark went through a whole emo phase where everyone [in the skateboarding scene] was dying their hair mad colours,” says Roo.
“Seeing people dying their hair and doing all sorts of different styles, it made us think that it’d be cool to learn how to do it properly.”
As juniors, Roo and Mark both qualified in hairdressing after gaining experience in an Aberdeen salon for a few years.
Though this built their confidence, Roo explains that mixing between cutting both men’s and women’s hair started to stretch the pair a bit thin.
“We just ended up thinking that it’d be better to be brilliant at one thing rather than average at four, you know?
“The barber shop Hard Grind had recently opened up in Aberdeen and we both decided that if we wanted to pursue barbering as a career, we should gain experience in a place like that.
“It was so busy that you just worked on your craft all the time.
“We worked there for a year and a half then took the plunge and opened up our own shop.”
New beginnings
Opening in 2016, Hometown Barbers is now fast approaching its 5th anniversary.
Inside, Roo and Mark’s pet dogs Arlo and Napoleon have also been Hometown mainstays since day one.
“They’ve both been a big part of the journey!” laughs Roo, who says that opening up shop for the first time was a nerve-wracking experience.
“We were totally sh****ng ourselves when we first opened,” says Roo.
“It was a big deal.
“There wasn’t a queue outside the door on the first day, but after the second week of being open, I honestly can’t say that we’ve had much time to breathe since.”
“I think we got in at the right time as well.
“There were only a few old-school type barbershops here at the time and I think that allowed us to make a name for ourselves in Aberdeen.”
Loyalty
Roo believes that his business’s wide mix of clientele has been the secret to their success.
From one-year-olds to 70-year-olds, Hometown’s loyal clientele have created a community within the shop where everyone looks after each other.
“Once guys find a barber that they like, they’ll be pretty loyal,” says Roo.
“During the pandemic, when we could have people in, the older clientele were especially generous because we’d lost out on so much.
“That was so important to us.”
Charity work
As well as looking after each other, Roo and Mark have also helped to look after others by raising thousands of pounds for charity through their business.
In 2019, they organised a 24-hour ‘cut-a-thon’ in aid of Crohn’s and Colitis UK, a charity they were inspired to back through one of their clients who suffers with Crohn’s disease.
“(The ‘cut-a-thon’) was horrific,” says Roo, “but it also raised a lot of money which was brilliant.”
Their most recent fundraising event saw the pair embark upon the gruelling London Marathon where they raised more than £8,000 for the same charity.
Future plans
With happy owners, staff and clients, Roo and Mark are more than content at Hometown.
Looking ahead however, Roo says that growing the business is something that may be on the cards.
“Everything’s going well at the moment, so I think in the next year or two we’ll figure out where we want to be,” Roo explains.
“We’re both quite open to the idea of expanding, but after everything we’ve been through with the pandemic, we’re quite happy to just be cutting hair and having a laugh right now.
“We might not make tons of money or have shops around the world, but at the end of the day we like spending time with each other, with the clients and also with our family and friends at the end of our shifts.”