SOMETHING IN THE AIR STREAM

WE STOPPED BY TOMMY WINDING’S FELLA AIRSTREAM ON THE CANTERBURY UNIVERSITY CAMPUS TO FIND OUT WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

WHERE DID THE IDEA TO CONVERT THE AIRSTREAM COME FROM?

I saw a company called Douce hairdressing in London who work out of an Airstream and thought it was such a cool idea. I don’t like the idea of being stuck in the same place, so initially I was looking into it with the intention of travelling around. I’d been working in the Fella shop for five or six years, and I wanted to be part of it whilst doing something else at the same time, so an Airstream felt like a little bit of freedom. Bobby [Fella owner] allowed me to take the brand and has supported me a lot.

TELL US ABOUT THE RENOVATION…

When I started Googling Airstreams, I didn’t realise how rare they are. This is an original from 1973. It turns out it’s quite a cowboy trade and they can have bad underlayers or rusted chassiswhich you can’t see until you rip the floor up. I found one online, and then saw about 20 more in the background of this picture and I thought “have I found the holy grail of Airstreams?”. It turned out the guy has been fixing them up for over 20 years. I took it off him as a shell, then did the flooring, woodwork and painting with my friends.

DO YOU WORK ON YOUR OWN HERE?

I was on my own last year, but now I’ve got Patrick, who works in the Fella shop in town. He comes to work with me three days a weekwhich is much more fun.

HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THIS LOCATION?

I realised to move around you have to build quite a strong following for that to work. Originally, I was going to be in the centre of town because I thought it would be difficult to get approval from the university, but when I spoke to them they were up for it straight away. I do think in the future we’ll have the option to move around.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE APPEAL WAS FOR THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS STUDENTS?

This is one of the biggest campuses in the country – there’s around 16,000 students who are campus based, so I didn’t have to pitch it as much as I thought I was going to. It keeps the students onsite, and Fella is a well-known brand in town so when they see this they feel comfortable coming in.

DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL CLIENTELE?

I’ve still got my regulars, but I’ve picked up more clients through social media. I had a bloke recently who took two buses to come to me! What I have found is that when students come to university, they’re willing to change their look quite a lot because they’ve come from different places, or they might not have had much of an identity back home. They come in with pictures and videos for methey really look into their haircuts and they’re more open minded to let me try new styles on them. We get long hair, short haira real variety. I’m seeing lots of longer mod-style haircuts. It’s also good for Patrick to be up here because it pushes him out of his comfort zone and I’m learning stuff too. Any good barber should be learning all the time.