Three years after he was unable to walk due to a debilitating back injury, Lewis Wilson has fulfilled a dream by opening a shop in Dundee.
The 37-year-old started cutting hair as soon as he left high school.
After several years in the salon, he completed a degree in geology just as the oil industry slumped.
Realising the new career path was now closed, the barber returned to renting a chair in a local salon.
Years later, Lewis developed severe back pain and had to take time off work.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back was a long car journey around Europe,” he recalls.
“We did a few thousand miles and I came out of the car the same shape as the seat.
“And then it got a lot worse from there.”
Off work for a year
His lower spine had severely herniated discs – parts of his spine were out of place.
A year of increasing pain and multiple hospital stays followed. Many surgeons did not want to operate on Lewis’ back.
“I was lying down on a hard floor in the living room crawling about,” he says.
“I wasn’t able to walk. By the end I also wasn’t able to urinate or anything.
“The painkillers they were giving me were getting stronger and stronger.
“By the end, I couldn’t read a book or concentrate on a TV programme because the painkillers were so strong.
“It was miserable.”
After finally getting his surgery, Lewis was walking for the first time in over a year.
LJ Wilson Barber Co is born
While recovering from surgery, an old dream popped back into the barber’s head.
He had planted the idea of opening his own barber shop years before his injury, and it was now blooming.
Just as Lewis started renovating his first barber shop in Crieff, the pandemic hit.
“That was pretty tough, but at the same time you just had to roll with it,” he says.
“I wasn’t annoyed, it was just a massive hurdle that had to be overcome.”
LJ Wilson Barber Co in Crieff opened in July 2020 and has been “going like a fair”.
Towards the end of last year, he secured new premises in his home city of Dundee.
Back to Dundee roots
After months of renovations, the Bank Street barber opened at the end of March.
Lewis has taken the relaxing atmosphere and his own line of grooming products with him from Crieff.
The barber will spend two days in Dundee and four days in Crieff cutting hair and trimming beards.
Alongside him are two barbers in the city and one manning the Crieff shop.
Lewis says: “I hope to add another chair rental in every three or four months as the shop gets busier.
“In Crieff, I’m hoping to take on an apprentice. I want to get the barbers as busy as they can be.”
