TRADE NAMES:From the swinging sixties through to the naughties, the man behind hairdressers John Adam has lived a full life in the trade, writes ROSE DOYLE.
IN 1960 JOHN Mahon's mother told him to get a job. Like mothers across the land, she worried - in an Ireland where jobs were thin on the ground - about his future. In John's case she needn't have: he landed on his feet in the hairdressing industry and has never looked back.
How John Mahon became John Adam and a living legend in the capital's world of hairdressing is part of a story he tells with many a laugh and no regrets in the Swan Centre, Rathmines where he's just spent a veritable fortune upgrading his hairdressing and beauty salon.
"I opened my first salon at 28 Upper Rathmines Road on December 7th, 1967," says the man whose silver hair is admirably coiffed, and who has an air of a man at ease with himself.
"I was 21 and knew country people would be in town for their shopping next day. On December 8th we'd lots of customers and things took off very, very well. Double names were cool in hairdressing at the time; Vidal Sassoon, Peter Mark and such. Michael Kendellen, who was working with me, came up with John Adam."
He makes it sound like things just happened when, in fact, he'd a life in hairdressing behind him by that time. A thoroughgoing Dubliner, he was born in Bangor Road, Kimmage, in December 1945, one of nine boys and two girls born to Eileen and Owen Mahon. When he was 11 the family moved to 32 Upper Rathmines Road and opened one of the first late opening grocers in Dublin.
"It's now the Mother Reilly pub," says John. "Number 28, where I first opened, is now the Upper Cross Hotel. Upper Cross used be the townland name around here; the big house was called Upper Cross House. There was a well to the back of the hotel, fed by a tributary of the Swan river, from where water was drawn for the cattle."
He's full of information, John Mahon/Adam, a lot of it interesting.
"Grocers, in 1957, would close after mass on Sundays and before the pubs closed during the week," he says, "but we stayed open until 3am or 4am at weekends and on weekdays until 2am. Rathmines was flat-land and, at weekends, everyone went home. You'd sell hardly anything until Monday at 5pm when you'd be cleaned out of everything; chickens, bread, the lot."
His hard-working parents enjoyed long and full lives. Owen Mahon died aged 87, Eileen just over a year ago aged 93.
John Mahon's school career, at Synge Street CBS, was abruptly cut short when, at 14, he was "politely asked not to come back after the summer recess".
In response to his mother's worry he "went around looking for a job. I'd a cousin in hairdressing and thought I'd try that. A job in Leon, South King Street, lasted 10 days. Then I went to Peter Mark, who'd just opened on Grafton Street. I paid 70 guineas to train and got back £1.7.6d a week as pay. I gave my mother £1 a week out of that. On the salon's half-day I manned the phone and got 7/6, then offered to wash floors too and got another 7/6. When the geyser broke down I watched the man fixing it, fixed it myself the next time and was given 10/- by Peter and £1 by Mark. I used pray the geyser would break down!"
He was honing skills which would see him take opportunities on the hop for the rest of his life.
After two years he moved to Peter of Creation Arcade where he was a colourist and from there, in quick time, to work with an ex-Peter Mark colleague when she opened in Dún Laoghaire.
"She was a great cutter so I taught her colouring and she taught me cutting," John says. "I'd be so tired I'd sleep on the bus coming home, then work in the shop at night for my parents. Saturday nights were great. I'd get invites to all the parties and go to them when the shop closed. Great years, great."
After nine months in Dún Laoghaire he moved to Dion in Baggot Street where he met Michael Kendellen, who would become his business partner. Dion's was memorable.
"Michael and myself were on the front page of the Evening Herald when the place went on fire and we saved all the women," his laugh hides a shiver at the memory. "It was very, very frightening. Even today a certain smell makes my hair stand on my head. I really thought some of the girls were in the basement but couldn't get down there for a sea of flames. We got the girls out by pushing and shoving, about 15 of them. Everyone said we were heroes." He laughs again.
While Dion's was being repaired he worked in Salthill, Galway. When he came back "the Dion job didn't exist so I bought 28 Upper Rathmines Road and opened in 1967. Michael came to me as a junior/improver and in 1968 when he wanted to run a place himself I opened a men's salon in South King Street and we became business partners. South King Street was famous for the fish nets and Playboy centrefolds on the ceiling. We'd take the Starlight flight to London to buy Playboy which was sometimes taken off us coming back. We'd go to see Vidal Sassoon shows in the Albert Hall, too. There was a revolution in hairdressing happening then. When we started blow-drying older customers said it would never catch on!"
By the time he opened in Capel Street in 1969 he'd opened three salons in as many years.
That was the year too he met Adrienne Finlay from Churchtown. It was love at first sight. "She was as beautiful then as she is now," he says. They married in 1970. He recalls them going to see Klute, coming back to the salon at 11pm, and cutting Adrienne's hair in the Jane Fonda style from the film.
"She worked in Eden Boutique and her customers all came to me for the cut. I remember beehives, up styles, pageboy, the lot. The 1970s were fantastic. We were young, married and the business was going well. We worked hard and partied hard."
Changes were coming. Gallagher developers bought up the South King Street shop and, in the deal which followed, John and Michael got £100,000 - "a fortune then. I bought my house on Woodlawn Park, Churchtown for £14,750 and sold it four years ago for €1.1 million."
By 1980 John Mahon and Michael Kendellen had a staff of 150 and eight hairdressing salons: two on Baggot Street; two in Capel Street; one on Merrion Row; one in Santry's Omni Centre; one in Rathmines; and one in Clerys, O'Connell Street.
"I got out of Capel Street altogether when it started to go down, sold Merrion Row, sold the Omni to Chris Condon who had been managing it and who had been with us since he was 17. I moved into the brand new Rathmines Swan Centre on December 12th, 1984 and introduced the beauty element.
"In September last year Michael and I ended our business partnership, very amicably. He has a son and daughter in the business and I've two daughters in it - Suzanne and Nina - and it made sense to separate things. Michael has the two places on Baggot Street, I kept Clerys and this place. I did a big job on Clerys and a big job here in the Swan Centre last year, moving to this bigger premises and adding a whole beauty treatment area."
He and Adrienne have four children. His oldest boy, Michael, trained as a hairdresser but is now "driving a truck in Boston". His second son, David, is a carpenter. Adrienne, in between rearing them all, became a beautician and runs the beauty end of the business with Suzanne. Adrienne's mother works part-time and her sister Gillian works in the business too. "It's very much a family thing," John says. "Some time in the future I hope the girls will take over." He is not about to retire, though, not today or tomorrow anyway.
