NEVER THROW IN THE TOWEL

SIAN JONES MEETS ANTHONY HUTTON TO HEAR HOW HE TURNED HIS LIFE AROUND AND DECIDED TO HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME

Anthony Hutton is a busy barber; founder of the Never Throw in The Towel Project and now the proud father of his 4-month-old son, Cruz, so when Modern Barber caught up with him it was a rare day off. “I’ve probably always been a closet barber,” he says, sharing that when a passion for being a footballer “didn’t come off” he left school without an education.

“In the back of my head I flirted with being a hairdresser but because it was the early 2000s it was associated with being a female job. I felt as if I would get the mick taken out of me if I got into the industry. So I didn’t pursue it.” After several years jumping around different jobs, including a postman and 70s disco dancer, Anthony eventually signed up to do a hairdressing course in his early 20s. “The Salon was on TV at the time and I thought yes, I want to get into the industry.

I did a hairdressing course with Saks but then I had to quit because I’d been accepted onto Big Brother.” What followed was a period of fame that once again took Anthony away from the hair industry before reaching a low point and having to find a ‘normal job’ again. “I was terrified because I thought I’d get laughed at. I decided to retrain and worked in a salon for a couple of years. I wasn’t very good but I stuck at it and that’s where the passion for male hair grew.”

It was at this point that he decided to follow his heart and open Mr Hutton’s Barbers and Bar. “I ran it as a barbershop through the day and a cocktail bar at night. It got some negativity but it also had a massive buzz around it.” It was whilst working in the barbershop that Anthony says he became fascinated with the conversations he was having with clients: “People were opening up to me and because I had been in a similar place I could pick things up. I had a lot of empathy and really wanted to help. There were multiple stories of men who were struggling with their mental health.” It was this experience and the loss of his grandma that led to Anthony starting the Never Throw in the Towel project. “For me it has felt like fate. The strapline is ‘Keep on Living’, and those were the words that I used at the end of my grandma’s eulogy. She brought me up. I always lived with grandma, grandad, and mam. We had such a special relationship, and I used the words, “never throw in the towel and keep on living,” to describe her fight during her cancer diagnosis. I wanted to end on a positive note.” Anthony shares that after the funeral a gentleman thanked him for his words, “That same night I got a message from him. He told me that he’d been feeling suicidal. He’d been getting professional help, and he wanted to let me know that he really clung onto the words, never throwing in the towel, and that just hit me.” From there Anthony started talking more on the topic of mental health, and when November came around, he decided to launch the Never Throw in the Towel project. “I put a post out saying the barber chair is one of the best places to talk, if anyone wants a free haircut in the month of November come and see me and you can have a conversation. Then at the end of November I decided to do the free men’s retreat.” The retreat was only meant to be a one off but after an attendee messaged to say “please keep this going” he decided to continue. “We’ve done a retreat ever since and we’re soon to become a charity where we’re going to have projects with ambassadors all over the country.”

When asked about where his drive to help people comes from, Anthony shares that it’s a combination of having been in a dark head space himself and knowing that things can get better. “It’s coming from personal life experience and being in the hair industry and finding myself as a poor man’s therapist. Losing my grandma was very hard. So I found it probably helped me a lot to help others and in turn, it was helping me as well.” Thinking about the impact his work with Never Throw in the Towel has on his own mental health, Anthony says: “No one prepares you for it when you’re training to be a barber, you don’t get told at college. I’ve stumbled across some very extreme situations. It should be part of your training in the industry. I am aware of looking after myself.”

When asked whether during his hardest time he would have believed all this was possible, Anthony says: “I don’t mean this to sound cocky, but I would say yes. I’ve always been guilty of being deluded which I think is a good thing. If you’re passionate about something then you’ll get it. I had so much love. I had two moms: grandma and mam. They helped me through thick and thin and that’s why I really want to help others.”