1/3 Bert has been cutting hair for sixty years.
The 80-year-old hairdresser Bert van Meebergen is still far from getting behind the geraniums. He still cuts the customers almost daily in his own hair salon in Breda. In addition, he tells stories about his second career as a model on the catwalk. And about the time he was the manager of a group of male strippers. “I went there with a bus full of housewives.”
When you enter Bert Haarmode in Breda-Noord, the cosiness falls over you like a warm blanket. Although the hair salon is modern, the rest is ‘gold of old’. The pictures on the wall, the music and of course Bert himself.
“I’ve been cutting for almost sixty years and I love my profession,” he says. “I don’t know when I’m going to die, but I won’t stop until the day before.
Bert Haarmode has become a household name in Breda over the years. “In the beginning it was really a women’s business and men didn’t even dare to enter,” says Bert. “Even the postman threw the mail in. Dyeing hair was a taboo and happened in the back of the kitchen. Fortunately, that has changed into a nice mix, including young and old, and that makes my barber shop so cozy.”
“I went with fifty housewives to a strip show that I organized myself.”
At a large photo gallery, Bert points out that he has also had many well-known customers. “Anneke Grönloh, Gerard Joling, Ronnie Tober, René Shuman, Trea Dobbs, Marianne Weber, the mother of Willeke Alberti and of course Benny Neyman. The latter was also a good friend.”
Of course Bert is getting older, but he still looks good. “I go to the beautician and dye my hair,” he confesses. “No gray hairs with me. I’m quite vain and I’m honest about that.” But mentioning his age turns out to be a bit more difficult. “No, I never talk about my age,” he continues firmly, but after a little insistence, the high word finally comes out. “I’m eighty.”
“I hate gossip magazines because half of them are lies and I know the real stories.”
Cutting is his passion and his life, but there was more. “I also modeled and did four big shows a week. That was very hectic, but I know all the artists from that. That’s why I hate the tabloids: half of them are lies. I know because I’m the real stories. But I never talked about that.”
In addition to being a model, the Breda hairdresser was also a manager for a while. “In the 1990s I entered the world of strippers,” he says. “Following the example of the American Chippendales, I became a kind of manager of a Dutch group. I organized the strip shows and presented them myself.”
“For example, I once put those boys in a tent in Rotterdam,” Bert continues. “Then I also rented a bus and went with fifty customers from the hair salon from Breda to the strippers. All housewives, of course! They loved it and we did that a few times.”
Those times are over and Bert now only cuts. Until he can’t anymore. “I don’t want to think about sitting behind the geraniums,” he concludes. “And if I die, they’ll just have to put me up and put me here in the shop. Then the customers will see me every day and they can wave.”
