Slidercuts Is A Love Story of London

Nov 19

Nov 19 Mark Maciver’s Slidercuts Is A Love Story of London

Mark Maciver should be celebrated considering he is responsible for the sharp haircuts found on a celebrity roster that reads like royalty. Names like Anthony Joshua, Lebron James and Stormzy should ring a bell. Yet, even though Mark’s talents are widely sought after, he remains the founder of Slidercuts, a Barbershop cemented on the suburban streets of Hackney and in the hearts of men in London since 2018. For International Men’s Day we reached out to Mark to discuss what hair means to him, his almost-20-year career as a barber and the current state of black male beauty. Although Mark is gaining increasing visibility for his inspiring work which uplifts the community, that helped him embrace his mixed african heritage, he doesn’t think of himself as a celebrity.

And yet here he is, on set, with the pulsing of his favourite R&B and Soul tracks enveloping the room, he quickly becomes Marcus—the Poet: calm, funny and acutely aware of his presence. But before we touch on that lets start at the beginning. We arrive at Mark’s empty Barbershop and we meet him finessing the final touches to his hair, trimming his beard and shaping up the edges of his hairline, a very-very important finishing touch for any haircut! (as his energetic Instagram videos and YouTube tutorials will declare). Clearly, presentation is just as important as what is spoken and Mark jovially talks about his Nigerian upbringing where usually, the first impression is the only impression (that counts). So as Mark quietly galavants around the shop, his safe haven and business hub, which has been momentarily transformed into an H&M studio shoot, he confidently points out “Nah, I don’t think this grey shirt is working with the blazer.” And how right was he? Mark is sure, suave and sizzling with personality as he smiles and poses with intention, knowing that he is ‘it’ and it is glorious to watch.

How did you feel on set for this shoot?

Today on set doing the shoot I felt like a celebrity, I’m not a celebrity but that was the feeling. When you have all the different costumes changes and flashing lights and cameras on you the whole time it makes you feel like that moment is all about you.

What are your earliest memories of getting your hair cut at the Barbershop, who took you?

I didn’t get a haircut at the barbershop till I was fourteen or fifteen maybe, that was my first time getting a haircut at the barber shop. Maybe a year before that or six months to a year before that was the first time I ever stepped into a Barbershop. So I was old by that time because my mom couldn’t afford to go to the Barbershop so I would be getting haircuts myself.

Would you say that hair is a family affair, and everyone in your family has played some part in helping you look your best? Who was the first person to take care of your hair?

Yeah, although I don’t think my family were helping me look my best, I think my family were just taking my hair off haha. Being Nigerian, you know it’s not about styles it’s just about cutting it low and then we wait until it grows high and then cut it low again. That was why I picked up the clippers because I wanted a nice style, I wanted it to look fresh and to look ‘it’. And you know what? I’m not going to get these styles from my mom or my siblings anymore so let me try and give myself one of these styles instead. My mum was the first person to cut my hair, bald all off, no frills, and I remember how it was. We were in our house and back then you wouldn’t cut your hair in the house you would go outside, especially back then we would use the brooms you know, the Nigerian brooms, the individual sticks where we wouldn’t get all the hair out, and I just remember you know going out with my pants. I either had no top on or a singlet on, as you’re sitting there no cape, no nothing and just being roughed up and getting it all cut off and that was my barbering experience or my haircut experience as a child.

““My hair journey didn’t start off in a good place because I wasn’t getting any good haircuts and then I started cutting my own hair and I was still getting rubbish hair cuts because I couldn’t cut my hair well.””

What was the experience like when you first went to the Barbershop?

When I first went to the Barbershop, I went with my friend because he was getting a haircut, and I remember sitting and just looking around and getting that barber smell and just seeing everyone doing what they were doing and really observing and taking in what was going on there as well as the haircuts. I was studying it a lot more than anyone else in the shop was but it was my first time there. I had an interest in cutting hair, I had been cutting my own hair at that point so I was watching them cut hair and I remember leaving there like ‘oh that’s how they do it you know so they’re putting the line in the hair and fading it out’ and I remember being really amped and I went home and I took my little cousin who was living with us at the time and I just cut his hair. I didn’t know what I was doing before that point so that gave me the blueprint for how to cut someone’s hair. I knew what to do.

Growing up as a young boy did you see any representation of how to care for your hair type or any hair products that helped you?

When I was a kid the hair products I was using were not the correct hair products because, at one stage in my childhood maybe more like around sixteen or seventeen, I was relaxing my hair (We both laugh hysterically).

And what about that experience can you share with us?

I was relaxing my hair because of my two older cousins living with us at the time. Another older cousin who was always round our house, he was always experimental with his hair. Every time he came round he had a different hairstyle, he had plaits and then he had his hair slick back relaxed, then it was like short cut whatever, it always was changing and I remember looking at him wishing I could get some of these styles. But my mum was not having it so obviously that’s why when I got to like sixteen I was in a place where I could now start doing things that I’ve always wanted to do. So yeah my hair journey didn’t start off in a good place because I wasn’t getting any good haircuts and then I started cutting my own hair and I was still getting rubbish haircuts because I couldn’t cut my hair well. Then I started getting better and then my older cousin that lived with me, she put a relaxer in my hair, as traditionally older black women seem to do with younger boys haha. I seem to hear these stories of people with older sisters it’s always like yeah, she did this to my hair. I remember the first time it came out and it was really curly and I really liked this but then my mum saw it and was like ‘take that off!’

““Cutting hair is an art-form full stop.” ”

Would you say that black hair is quite political then?

Definitely, it’s like what my mum probably saw on TV or not even TV but also the boys she would see hanging around in the streets, she probably would see them with certain styles and she wouldn’t want me to be connected with those boys. Because she’s a lot older she didn’t get that curly hair was not a street style it was just a hair type, she just didn’t understand that. She probably just saw that it looked different and also coming from Nigeria as well you know all the ‘Rude-boys’ on the streets they would have styles, you know try to put some of the big lines into it and things like that so she probably thought, that will not be my son.

What does the Barbershop mean to young black boys/men?

I think the Barbershop means something to black boys and men that they don’t know that it means. So subconsciously they see it as a community centre, subconsciously they see it as a second or third home, subconsciously they see it as a place of refuge. Subconsciously they see it as a place they can come and be themselves but they don’t consciously know those things. But they feel those things and its not until they go out into the world especially as they get older and they start having to conform. And conforming isn’t always a negative word, I know people always see it as a negative word but you have to conform sometimes to the environment in which you are in. If you come to into my house if we take off our shoes, you conform to the rules of the house which is taking off your shoes. So conforming has become a real negative word but it’s just kind of like different businesses, you come into my shop you conform to the rules and ideas of the shop which is, we don’t have any swearing there are no profanities, we talk in a certain way. You cannot come in here and insult people. You conform to the environment in the shop. So I feel like with these young black boys and men they don’t realise until they go out into the world and they have to start conforming to society and the norms of what society is out there. That is when they realise how much and how comfortable they feel when they come into the barber shop.

What has inspired you in terms of hair?

My inspirations for hair came from majority TV growing up. It came from ‘Kid And Play’, from Carlton and Will in ‘Fresh Prince’… and umm I can’t remember the guys name from the show called ‘Hang Time’ growing up. This guy had a high skin-fade and he used to have it a little messy on the top and ‘Sister Sister’ seeing Roger with his hairstyles. These are the things that inspired me, these are the things that made me say I want these hairstyles.

““My inspirations for hair came from majority TV growing up. It came from ‘Kid And Play’, from Carlton and Will in Fresh Prince…””

Do you think there is an unspoken loyalty to the Barbershop then?

Well there’s an over-spoken loyalty to the Barbershop to be honest, not this Barbershop because as I always say, do as you want. Even though I always tell people you can go to whoever you want they feel guilty. That comes from when you feel comfortable somewhere where you have good memories and good connections. Even if you consciously don’t know it, it forms an unconscious connection which makes you feel like you cannot leave there because it’s like a relationship with someone who you really enjoy spending time with, they’re really good for you they’re like a family, intimacy, whatever it is.

Do you think there has been a cultural shift with more acceptance amongst black men of their beauty?

A lot of people are becoming more comfortable in their own skin and seeing beauty in that as well. With men that’s not always been the case for example, growing up African and Black, the Caribbean boys always thought they were good looking growing up they never had any issues or complexes. They always thought they were pretty and that they were cool and good looking. That’s why growing up there was a separation, they saw Africa as a bad thing, ‘they don’t look good and they don’t dress well.’ Everything, you know all that stuff, they genuinely had confidence

How crucial is it that we do encourage black men and boys to see their worth?

There is so much to be done and I always tell everyone this. If you can just help one person that is all that you need to do and that can be speaking to one person once a month checking in on that person or giving them money, funding something that they’re trying to do. It’s not always money, it can be whatever you have whether it’s time which is something that can be given, whether it is resources, connections, I just feel like everybody that is in the know and everybody that sees the problem should be part of the solution. Just giving time to once person in your community is the change that can happen and in America they have it a lot more with the mentorship. In this country it’s starting to happen a little bit now but in America they’ve already had it from their fraternities and all that kind of stuff there, from donkeys of years back. But I feel like that actually helps, just having a mentor there, someone that is actually feeding into you.

““I think the barbershop means something to Black boys and men. Subconsciously they see it as a place they can come and be themselves””

Reflecting on your career so far, what are you most proud of or looking forward to?

I’d love to open up a barbering business academy, now the barbering academy is something that I’m willing to partner on to be honest because I want to add the business element into the barbering academy and maybe even an academy just on business which is more practical. The reason that I even have a successful business now is because of my practical application, talking from a place of theory you’ve never done so you’re thinking you’re right but yeah I would love to open up a barbering business academy just to teach people. Especially people who’ve come out of barbering school, they always ask me on my instagram, ‘what do I do now, how do I apply for a job should I shadow someone, should I start off at home?’, ‘I’ve gone to a shop and they’ve offered me this deal’. When you go to the barber for example you’re going to be approached by three different deals. Either someone’s going to pay your wage, someone’s going to do your percentage or someone’s going to offer you chair rental. I want them prepared for what they’re getting into.

Do you think there is a similar correlation with Black-owned businesses and the language we use to describe Black Hair?

I think it’s a negative thing, even if you’ve got the same quality service from a black person, with a white person you’d probably feel more comfortable. One would feel more comfortable spending a higher price with a white person because they almost feel that they’re getting a better service. And that is parallel to the hair thing because by nature your hair is bad, your skin is bad and it’s the same thing when it comes to the work we do because the black businesses will be valued lower even if it’s not overtly spoken about.

You have two young boys, what message do you want to teach them about hair and would you want them to go into barbing when they’re older?

I’ve got two young boys one is a one year old and the other is four years old. I’m not sure if I want them to get into the hair industry although they can if they want to. Obviously we sway their decisions from young and obviously being a barber, my children are in the Barbershop with me so they see me cutting hair. My son, even before he would go to Reception, he would spend one day in the Barbershop every week. He’s been on my back whilst I was cutting hair in the shop, literally strapped on my back and he would go with me to my call-outs. He now comes and spends time in the barbershop and its not a over-idolise yourself thing but it’s just accepting yourself and being comfortable and happy with who you are.

““I wasn’t proud as a kid to be Nigerian, but as I got older and started accepting myself, I started becoming a lot more proud of who I was”

”

Can you tell me a bit more about how you celebrate your Nigerian culture and how it has made you who you are today?

I’m Nigerian and I was born in this country in London, both my parents are Nigerian, and that has moulded the way I do things my heritage and everything. I lived in England but my house was Nigeria. The food I ate in my house was all Nigerian food we had the broom you know which is the Nigerian broom, it smelt of Nigeria in my house so it was almost I guess like being mixed-race. And it was a mixed heritage because I’m being taught by this London way of living in school then I would go home and be back in Nigeria, so it was good to be honest. I’m a bit annoyed that I can’t pass on as much as my parents passed on to me to my children you know - I try to tell my mum to speak to my children just in my language but she’s just failing with that. My mum is Edo, from Benin, but she’s just not doing it. But I guess it’s our responsibility for me to teach them that. I love the heritage I come from because I love the food, I love the dress sense, I love the energy. I guess my loud voice comes from that as well, people say Nigerians are loud haha, it comes from that you know I’m proud to be Nigerian. I wasn’t proud as a kid to be Nigerian, but as I got older and started accepting myself, I started becoming a lot more proud of who I was. Also an amazing thing that helped me with that was the school I went to St Aloysius, half the year was African so then it became a thing where they would pull kids who were African you know the stereotypes, Africans were always you know nerdy.

Can you describe your current haircut and what it says about you?

It’s almost like I’m a poet. My name is Mark right, but my hairstyle kind of represents Marcus. I’m a poet who is calm, friendly, consciously in tune with himself and I feel like this hairstyle it almost represents all of that - the natural curl my hair does, I’ve still got it faded I’ve still got it shaped up very clean very neat. I’ve got a lot of hair on my head, the volume of hair, you can see my hair from across the road. I can leave it to be free, I don’t wake up and do anything to it. It’s kind of like the free spirit. It feels like Marcus you know even though my name is Mark. I wish my name was Marcus haha.

Throughout the interview, it became apparent the busy life Mark balances, during break intervals taking the opportunity to call his wife and then immediately tending to a stream of business calls. It was also easy to grasp the genuine connections he’s made as people frequently walked by the shop (assuming it was open), waiving pleasantries or even pausing to have a chat. Marks response to the second lockdown?: “I’m not too bothered this time round as I made sure I was prepared.” There is of course no argument that barbers are essential workers whose work are essential to the lives of black men, harnessing the wave for them to see their worth and flex their beauty—Marks favourite colour is a shade of electric blue which coincidentally was the colour of a blazer worn in the shoot—something tells me that Mark has all the energy and more to continue pushing culture whilst staying true to himself.

Follow Mark on here and Instagram at @slidercuts

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