A BARBER is celebrating 30 years at the chair of one of the longest established shops in the area.

Max Jaffe, who owns Mr Max Barbers in Newbury Road, says he is as happy as he has ever been keeping the people of Highams Park in trim.

Mr Jaffe, 59, has been a barber since the tender age of 14. Following his mother into the hairdressing business, he first worked at a barber's shop in Neasden, before moving to Highams Park in 1974.

He said: "My wife and I were looking for a shop with a flat above it and stumbled across this place.

"It was really lucky and I have had many great years here. I think what keeps me going is all the friendly people. Many of the customers have been coming here for longer than I have worked here, and I have seen families grow up and now cut the hair of three generations of some families.

"To be honest, for some people this is more of a social club than somewhere to get their hair cut and I really enjoy the friendly banter I have with the customers."

Mr Max Barbers is just an ordinary barber shop, but a few funny incidents have cropped up in the 30 years Mr Jaffe has been cutting hair there.

He said: "There used to be this man who came in who had very long hair. We were in the middle of an extremely cold winter and for some reason he decided he wanted to have all his hair cut off, completely shaved. He asked me to do it with a cut-throat razor. I thought it was a bit strange but that's what he wanted.

"I saw him the following week and he had a heavy Russian hat on. He looked freezing. I doubt he would have had that done again."

Mr Jaffe and his wife Barbara moved out of the flat above his shop in 1992 and now live in Gants Hill. They have one grown-up daughter, Rachel.

But despite the move away to a new home, Mr Jaffe has no thoughts of retirement just yet. He said: "I love doing what I do, meeting new people.

"To be honest I wasn't really clever enough to do anything else when I first got into it, but now I wouldn't swap it for anything and I'm sure I'll be here until I retire."