Local Legends: Guido Piccirili, 60 years behind the scissors at Guido's Hair Care

You don’t have to be a local to know that plenty has changed in St Marys over the last few decades. 

With the Western Sydney airport and subsequent light rail yet to come and more houses and apartments rapidly being built, there’s much more change on the way, too.

While plenty of small businesses have come and gone from the area over the decades, there’s one St Marys institution that has stood the test of time, recognised by all who regularly visit Queen Street as a cornerstone of the area.

From the outside, Guido’s Hair Care might look like another run-of-the-mill barbershop - but the establishment is a living, breathing testament to the strength of the community and the endurance of a unique local business, as is the man himself, Guido Piccirili. 

The shop's location has changed twice and the business has changed hands once, but it’s been a mainstay in St Marys since 1947 when it was first established by Jim Hackett of the renowned Hackett family, who originally claimed ownership of the majority of land in the St Marys region in the 1800s.  

Though the building is now long gone, the barber shop started within the old Crown Theatre, a cinema that used to be the centrepiece of the local area. It was there that a young Guido started what would become a lifelong association with the community as an apprentice. 

“We started up the road, at the old picture theatre,” he tells Real Sydney News, gesturing to the north as we stand outside the store. 

“My old boss was Jimmy Hackett. Even before the shop he was cutting hair in a house near what’s now the Great Western Highway. The story goes that he wanted to open a shop in St Marys, but his father told him to wait due to the possibility of the picture theatre being built. In the end his family were friends with the builder and got the shop put in.”

ORIGIN STORY 

Like many of the early residents in St Marys, Guido and his family emigrated to Australia from Europe in the aftermath of World War II, looking for a better life (“like so many”). 

He moved halfway across the world in 1962, and even as a young man he was ready to work. 

“I came (to St Marys) straight off the boat from Abruzzi in Italy. It’s on the Adriatic coast,” he recalls. 

“I was 14 years and 8 months old when I came, and you were allowed to work if you were 15. I started straight away - I got a job in May even though I wasn’t supposed to until (he turned 15 in) August." 

Ultimately it was the prospect of a long commute helped make the decision to stay in St Marys.

“It was always my plan to be a barber, but not to work (for Hackett). My plan was to go and work in Campsie because a friend of ours had a place out there. 

“We came to St Marys to stay because my brother lived here, and then I realised that to get from here to Campsie by train back then would have taken too long.”

It’s hard to disagree. Even today, 60 years later, that commute between St Marys and Campsie takes over an hour each way. But Campsie’s loss has been St Marys’ gain. 

Guido has seen a lot of changes to the local area in the six decades he’s worked here - from the growth of the main street in which he’s always done business to the development of Sydney as a whole.  

“There used to be houses on Queen Street,” he recalls. “About half a dozen heritage buildings from the 1800s and heaps of empty lots.” 

“But it was different then. If you came to St Marys from Sydney, you were coming here on holiday because it was considered the country. If you were an apprentice and you moved to this side of Blacktown, you didn’t have to go to TEC (TAFE) because this area was considered rural, there was nothing like that on this side.” 

As St Marys continued to develop behind a thriving industrial area and hard-working migrant community, so too did the business. 

Within a few years Hackett had moved the barbershop to a standalone location on Queen Street, and in 1982 he sold the business to Guido, who changed the name but not much else.

Sixteen years later, in 1998, the business moved to a larger space in the shop next door - the location is still maintains today.

Despite the occasional changes, 76 years after it was first established in that long-forgotten theatre, St Marys’ oldest barber is still standing strong.  

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

By the time he took ownership of the business, Guido had already been working locally for 20 years, establishing connections with families and individuals that are still maintained today. 

“I don’t have any customers who’ve been with me since the start anymore, but I had a customer come in yesterday - I used to cut his grandfather’s hair, then I cut his Dad’s hair, then I cut his hair - and now I cut his son’s hair.”

It’s a surprisingly common theme, with a mountain of multi-generational stories from families who return to the shop time and time again. Some customers who’ve left the area will still time their returns to the west with a chance for a haircut at Guido’s. 

That connection to the community has shown Guido the clear differences between each generation as society evolves, as well as what they have in common as they take their seat in the barber’s stool. 

“You deal with these (generations) when they’re the same age and you really see the differences and changes,” Guido says. 

“Today’s kids are different. Older generations used to talk about things like buying houses and land, then it was about buying cars. But they have a lot in common too. 

“We rarely actually talk about haircuts. We talk about our families and about community. I remember all the generations and families and anecdotes. They stay with you.”

Waves of immigration over the decades have brought a range of different cultures and personalities from across the world to the western suburbs - just like Guido. But the universal experience of a haircut has always provided common ground - even though the demographics of the community have changed multiple times since the shop first opened. 

“When I came here in ‘62, Italians were at the bottom (of the social ladder) for a few years, but it was different then too.

“Guys come in here now, and no matter what they look like or where they’re from, they know they can come and have a chat,” 

Guido credits the strength of local industry for playing a role in uniting a diverse community in the earlier days, with factories and plants like tailor Anthony Squiers and eyeglass manufacturer Martin Wells both based in St Marys at the time. 

“Those factories were full of different nationalities,” he says.

“Places like that brought a lot of different backgrounds to St Marys, brought them together.”

That diversity could have created friction and division, but Guido believes it had a more positive impact during turbulent and uncertain times, both for the community and the business. 

“I think coming to the barbershop does help people get rid of (negative) perceptions. When I got here I also had my own, based on my experiences. But even I’ve learned to be more accepting, and that’s been helped by working in this shop.”

MEDIA SPOTLIGHT

The shop’s place as a meeting point for all members of the local community hasn’t gone unnoticed, with media using the beloved venue to access a wide range of community voices in the past.  

“When Malcolm Turnbull resigned (in 2018), we had a crew from Channel 7 come into the shop wanting to talk to people. I thought they were joking,” Guido says. 

“I asked the guy ‘why here?’ - he said everywhere else they went it had been exclusively one group of people and he wanted to talk to a wider demographic. We had young and old, European, South Americans and more in the shop that day, like any day.” 

Even when COVID took a toll on local business, the outpouring of support was enough to catch the eye of broadcasters and print media alike looking for a feelgood story as society stumbled out of lockdown. As businesses struggled with an uncertain future, Guido’s did what they had to do to stay afloat, constructing a giant marquee in the rear half of the property as an extended, open-air waiting room to comply with social distancing. 

That ingenuity caught plenty of attention - at least for a while. 

“For the first two weeks it was great,” Guido says. 

“We had Channel 9 down here, the Daily Telegraph - but after that it dropped off, and it’s only just coming back (to pre-pandemic levels) now.”

POST-COVID ISOLATION

There have been downsides over the years, too - with plenty brought on by the pandemic. 

While Guido’s has done well to survive behind a strong brand and long-standing community support, the pandemic also had other impacts on the small business community, largely unseen by the general public. 

“Back (before COVID) there may have been about four local barber shops - but we were all friends,” he says. 

“After you finished work you all went to the pub and you talked shop and stuff.

“Now, today’s generation, they treat you like the enemy. 

“You used to know who else was in the local industry, but there are always new shops and I don’t even know who runs them. 

“(The industry has) lost that spirit of community, because they’re all fighting so hard to survive. People have changed and things are different, but we were more together before.”

Staffed with family and friends (Guido’s brother and son have worked in the shop for decades, and now his son-in-law is on track to join the team), long-standing shops like Guido's are also being affected by a shortage of incoming barbers. 

While COVID had a role to play, the industry is also being impacted by the fact many graduates are looking to start up their own shop straight away instead of joining the ranks of an already established organisation. The small number who DO look for a place to learn are often lost among the 30+ barbershops that are vying for apprentices in the local area.  

“We can’t get anybody from Australia lately,” Guido laments.

“We’ve had an Italian kid on a visa, we had an Irish kid come across as well. 

“If you talk to anybody, everyone’s short of apprentices. The apprentice we have now goes to TAFE in Kingswood and there are just two people in his class. There are 10 barber shops around here and 20 in Penrith. 

“In the end you just give up - but it’s also about location. We had one guy from Cronulla, one from West Ryde, but they had to give it up due to distance. If they lived around here, they would have stayed.”

Hopefully, with more residential development happening and significantly improved public transport access to St Marys on the horizon, issues like these will be mitigated.

Despite the challenges he’s still facing regularly, it’s clear that Guido is doing what he loves. While the delay on apprentices might be staving off thoughts of retirement, the boss is happy to stick around while the next generation learn the tricks of the trade. 

“I need people I can trust, who can stay here,” Guido says. 

“As long as these guys are learning and giving people haircuts, I’ll stick around. I’m only 76.” 

He’s been in business 60 years and has become a beloved character of the St Marys business landscape - but with a bright future for the region, a strong local brand and a genuine community connection, there’s no reason that the shop won’t still be here for generations to come.

‍Guido’s Hair Care is located at 183 Queen Street, St Marys. Appointments are not required.