How we got here.
Finding our way back to our roots.
Harry Mytton’s sign writing bringing the shop front to life 2025
I opened Fractured society barbershop in 2018 with a vision to create a proper community barbershop, but somewhere along the way I lost sight of what I’d set out to do.
It took a few changes, a few mistaskes and a failed skate shop to find our way back.
Before Barbering.
Before barbering I spent 10 years as a builder, following in my dad’s footsteps, laying bricks, tiling roofs and plastering living rooms.
By 25 I’d had enough of cold winters and needed a change.
My mum was a hairdresser and I’d spent my school years cutting my mates hair - mostly mohawks, emo fringes and questionable bleach jobs.
I hadn’t really appreciated the barbershop growing up, but the seed had been planted.
Sidetracked.
In 2015 I started barber college. At the time, traditional barbering was having a proper revival. Uppercut Deluxe and barbers like Shane Nesbitt, Paul Hewitt and Hard Grind were among my influences.
That’s what drew me in.
Traditional barbering, good craftsmanship and proper service mixed with surf, skate and tattoo culture I’d grown up around.
You could respect where barbering had come from without pretending it was 1955.
My first job was in small a shop in Birkenhead, learning the less glamorous side of the trade.
Sweeping floors, cleaning skirting boards, making drinks, watching, cutting hair… Then more cutting hair.
Later I moved to a shop in Chester and saw another side of the industry.
Social media taking off, stage shows were getting bigger and building your personal profile seemed to be becoming as important as the work itself.
I remember being told once if you say the right things to the right people I’d get recognition and a slot on stage.
That wasn’t my cup of tea…
I wanted a reputation built on the haircut, the client and the experience inside the barbershop.
So in 2018 I opened my own.
The original white walls and Jack’s station 2018
Finding our feet.
We started with a few tubs of white paint, three stations and some of the most uncomfortable waiting chairs known to man. Turning the community butchers into a community barbershop.
The community got behind us and we were off.
The shop didn’t have one fixed look. Each barber made the space around the chair their own. I liked the idea that the people inside gave the place its character.
Jack was there from day one and still is.
Then Covid arrived. People came and went.
Around that time, I met Baz in a tattoo shop. He came over from a shop in Rhyl and has stuck with us ever since.
Bonxai skate co (two snakes lived in the reception desk) 2020
Somewhere in the chaos, we decided to open a skate shop at the back.
We called it Bonxai.
It didn’t work.
So that went.
The barbershop kept changing too. More chairs, more barbers, and eventually we swapped the white walls for a darker look. It seemed cool at the time, but looking back, clients must have felt like they were walking into a teenagers bedroom.
The teenager’s bedroom look. 2023
Back to the point.
By late 2024, I realised I’d drifted away from what had brought me into barbering in the first place.
Between running the business, paying bills and letting the shop evolve, the things I cared about had taken a back seat.
The tradition, the service, the atmosphere, the smells, the music, the conversations and the craft of cutting hair.
So I started pulling it back.
We brightened the place up, brought in a little more class and kept the surf, skate and tattoo influences that were always a part of us.
More importantly, we put the client experience back at the centre of everything.
The current space upstairs 2026
Now we’ve got a loyal team, a top-notch bunch of regulars and new faces coming through the door. The shop feels like it has its identity again and I finally feel like we’re getting it right.
The name Fractured Society was always meant to have a bit of irony behind it.
Different ages, jobs and backgrounds, all sitting next to each other in a barbershop. For half an hour, none of that really matters.
Just people having a laugh, listening to good music, enjoying a conversation and getting a decent haircut.
No more uncomfortable seating. 2026
Modern Barbering. Traditional values.
We’re not trying to recreate the past. We just believe some things are worth holding on to.
Good service, great haircuts and looking after the fellas who trust us to put hair on the floor and, in return, help us put food on the table and roofs over our heads.
Thank you to everyone who’s worked here, shaped the shop along the way or sat in one of our chairs.
Lets see where we go from here.