A barber shop in Manchester has started offering £5 haircuts to help their customers struggling with the cost of living.
Founded by an ex-basketball player who once played for the Manchester Giants and London Lions, Northern Quarter barber shop Jefe’s is offering the cut price trims to men and boys struggling to make ends meet.
The barber shop already offers new customers their first trim for £5 (or £10 with a beard trim), however after reflecting on how the cost of living crisis is ‘getting out of hand’ owner Jefe decided he wanted to do more.
Noticing that other businesses are rising prices ‘because they are also struggling’, he commented that it was a ‘vicious cycle’ before adding that ‘a fresh hair cut can boost confidence and self-esteem.’
He continued: “If the weight of the world is getting heavier. this is where people need to know they have someone they can lean on.”
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Tucked just off Stevenson Square on Spear Street, the shop was initially opened after owner Jerelle Okoro retired from sports in 2020.
It made headlines then for launching as Manchester’s first-ever subscription-based barber shop, and now its owner has got the city talking once again with this new affordable service.
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Since launching into the world of barber shops, Jerelle has cut hair for the likes of YouTube boxers Swarms and Fuhad, football reporter Carl Anka and The Voice’s Okulaja.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Jerelle said: “We know everyone’s struggling at the minute and we don’t want people to struggle mentally because they have to sacrifice seeing a friend.
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“The cost of living is getting out of hand, and we’ve noticed that businesses in this crisis are rising prices because they are also struggling too. It’s a vicious cycle.
“A fresh haircut can boost confidence and self-esteem, especially if the weight of the world is getting heavier, this is where people need to know they have someone they can lean on.”
“I’ve always cut hair, due to my frustrations with how other barbers used to treat me,” he explains. “I felt like the art of conversation and service went missing.
“Now, I have a solid team of like-minded barbers that consistently provide a great service and an amazing haircut.”
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“It’s well known in the barbering industry how much impact a haircut can have on people,” he added.
“But that’s not the only thing it can impact, studies have shown men with higher self-esteem perform better in work, act positively, and tolerate frustration much better than those with lower self-esteem.”
Those wanting to book a £5 trim at Jefe’s can do so by texting “Hey Jefe” to 07897022894.
Featured image – Jefe’s
Manchester
Legendary city centre boozer named one of the best beer gardens in the UK
Daisy Jackson
No phones, cheap pints, and bags of sunshine – that’s the USP of Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, and now it’s earned itself the title of being one of the UK’s best beer gardens.
This legendary local pub has placed in an impressive eighth place on a new list of the nation’s top outdoor watering holes, beating beachside boozers and countryside pubs.
Sinclair’s Oyster Bar is the only Greater Manchester pub to make the new list published by Big 7 Travel.
They celebrated it for its ‘old-school pub characteristics’, which is a pretty fair summary of this local legend.
As well as a strict no-phones policy, encouraging its inhabitants to keep devices in their pockets and have a chin wag over a Taddy Lager instead, the pub is also serving pints at some of town’s most old-school prices.
This is one of the few places in town where you can still get a pint for less than a fiver, with its humble selection of beers and stouts priced from £3.50.
It’s also cash-only, and housed in a fascinating building that dates back to the 18th century – though it didn’t always stand in its current location on Exchange Square.
The pub has actually been rebuilt twice – once in the 1970s, being raised up by five feet to match new street levels during the construction of the Arndale Centre; then again in 1996 after the IRA bomb.
The 3000-pound bomb that changed the face of Manchester left the little pub with only minimal damage, but left it (and its neighbour, the Old Wellington) in need of a new home.
Sinclair’s in Manchester has been named as having one of the best beer gardens in the UK
So these centuries-old buildings were popped up on stilts and moved 300m down the road, meticulously reassembled over 11 months like a giant LEGO set to form the new square beside Manchester Cathedral.
You can read more about Sinclair’s Oyster Bar’s fascinating history HERE.
As for the present day, the pub’s suntrap outside terrace is forever heaving on match days, when football fans from across the globe pack around its picnic tables.
Big 7 Travel wrote: “Known for its old-school pub characteristics, including being cash-only and a no-phones policy, this historic pub – whose origins date back to the early 18th-century – is well known for serving cheap and easy-drinking Sam Smith’s beer, making it the perfect spot to socialise with friends in the city.
“The beer garden is also a complete suntrap, so when the sun’s shining in Manchester, there are few better places to spend an afternoon than Sinclair’s.”
It has placed in the top 10 of the guide’s list of 30 beer gardens in the UK, which has also named a couple of spots in the Lake District and Peak District.
Demolition and regeneration plans for former Manchester shopping centre to begin next month
Emily Sergeant
Plans to demolish and regenerate a former shopping centre in a Manchester suburb are set to kick off from next month.
Following planning approval at the end of 2025, major plans to transform the former Chorlton Cross Shopping Centre into a ‘thriving’ new destination to live and shop are set to commence with demolition in the next couple of weeks.
If you’re unfamiliar with the plans for the new Chorlton neighbourhood, they include 262 one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, all with access to outdoor space through balconies and gardens, 53 affordable homes – with 49 of them being available for social rent – and around 3,500 sq metres of public open space with fully walkable routes and outdoor seating areas.
A mix of flexible retail spaces, including a new ‘Makers Yard’ suitable for smaller start-up businesses will also be included, alongside new tree planting.
Phase one of the project will involve the dismantling the former shopping centre and neighbouring Graeme House buildings.
According to developers, the first step will be to close the precinct car park at the end of this month, before new hoardings are installed around the site to close the area off to pedestrians and vehicles for safety reasons.
The demolition work is expected to begin in mid-June, and be completed by August.
Where possible, materials from the existing buildings will be reused during construction of the new neighbourhood in a bid to help reduce the number of vehicles needed to remove materials from the site.
“Demolition marks another major milestone for the project, which will completely transform the former shopping centre,” commented Georgina Lynch, who is the managing director at Manchester-based developers, PJ Livesey.
“Our demolition contractor will carefully manage any issues throughout the work, and we will continue to stay in regular contact with local residents and businesses as the demolition progresses.”
Georgina Pellant -
24th April 2023 
