He recently turned 84, but he doesn’t want to know anything about stopping yet. Hairdresser Janos Limp started cutting at the age of fourteen and can still be found a few days a week in his former business near the Oosterpark.
“I still try to work a little now and then. I just like that. It just appeals to me. In short: I can’t do without it. It’s partly because of the love for the profession,” he says while standing to cut.
Janos came to Amsterdam from Hungary at the age of 17 during the Hungarian uprising. The first few months he worked at paper factory Proost en Brandt. After mastering the Dutch language better, he worked in various hair salons in the city. A few years later, in 1967, he opened his hair salon in East.
Janos’ son took over the scissors in 1995, but father never succeeded. “You always create something. It’s quite a creative profession. With people interacting. It’s not a dead profession. It’s a very nice and lively profession,” says Janos.
New owner
The business will be transferred this week to a new owner, Mecha Saronjac, an old neighbor who still looks up to Janos as a hairdresser. Mecha: “His movements, his look at the head, at the hair, his movements with scissors and comb. I think if you blindfolded him, you wouldn’t have to worry that he would cut your ears. This is really bizarre . That makes me proud.”
Mecha herself came to Amsterdam during the war in former Yugoslavia as an 18-year-old and therefore feels a connection with Janos. He has promised that Janos can still come to the store a few times a week for a haircut.
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