Hauwhenua Kirkwood, 25 (Te Waiōhua) is the owner and manager of Kirkwood Barbers, which has just moved into Lunn Ave in Mt Wellington.
Kirkwood says some people seem to be surprised to see a young Māori business owner. However, he and his workers at the shop are changing that view.
With all the current barbers of Māori descent and all under 25, they still have at least 30 years of experience between them, and the business seems to be booming with large demand by regular clients.
"I've been barbering for eight years now, and when I first planted the seed and concept in my head that I wanted to open up my own barbershop I actually didn't know where to begin."
Kirkwood says he had no knowledge of how to start or even run a business, which was a major challenge before he opened his first barbershop in Panmure in 2019. "I had no idea how to run a business, let alone try to find and manage staff. Luckily I had help and got given some tips from some family to help with that."
Barbering trend
Just last week the shop moved to Lunn Ave, Mt Wellington, which has moved it into a different market.
"We charge $45 for a standard men's cut and $35 for a kid's cut. Our service is second to none: When a client walks into the shop they're offered a free beverage. They also get a free hair wash and we also end every service with a hot towel."
Hauwhenua was just like many barbers starting out cutting hair at school for his friends, and pursued it as a full-time career. He went to barber school, and invested in his craft.
"Barbering has become quite a trend lately, with more and more youth wanting to pick up a pair of scissors and learn the trade. Our rangatahi Māori have a lot of potentials also in barbering. I see this becoming a career for more Māori in the future."
"After I opened up my first shop, I wanted to give back to the community and I thought for this shop what an honour it was to open up under te Maunga Rei o Pōtaka, which is my maunga as well."
One of Kirkwood's workers, Caleb Heke, was destined for the league field when he got scouted and received an opportunity to move to Australia and play rugby league. Heke was on the verge of getting a contract to play for the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL.
However, his dream was cut short: "I was over in Aussie playing rugby league and then I tore my AC,L which was a big injury. I had to make the decision whether it was playing league or do something else that I could have a career in."
Heke was already cutting hair as a hobby and started applying for jobs in Australia, "I decided to apply for a few jobs, and Culture Kings was hiring and looking for barbers, so I applied, and ended up getting the job. Although I was cutting hair as a hobby, I had no professional experience and no qualifications. But I just started picking up things from other barbers."
After one year at Culture Kings, Heke moved back to New Zealand and barbering is his full-time job. He says he is really proud to be working at Kirkwood Barbers knowing that it's fully owned and operated by Māori. "It makes me feel really proud, we see a lot of shops owned by Middle Eastern and everyone in there are Middle Eastern but you don't see many Māori owned and operated barbershops."
"I post a lot of content, I post on Instagram and Tik Tok, I got a bit of success of Tik Tok - one video went up to 1.3million views - so now I just want to share my skills online through social media and just keep perfecting my skills. That's my goal."