Salih Mešković is, as he claims, the oldest barber in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has sixty-two years of experience behind him, intertwined with various people, war and many anecdotes.
That the love for the work we love lasts forever, is shown by the story of brother Mešković, who is thinking about retirement, but still does not give up what he loves.
“I have been working for 62 years. I am the oldest in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no one older than me. Every day, I find it sweeter to work and better. God gave me some luck. Neither my legs hurt nor my hands, everything is fine ,” says Salih Mešković.
During his working life, he had various anecdotes and situations that he encountered, and because of one of them, he decided not to cut women’s hair.
“I used to cut women’s hair. On one occasion, I was cutting a woman’s hair, I did it nicely, but I didn’t know that her husband was following her, nor did I have any idea that there could be a problem. I noticed that the man (husband) followed her only when she left the store. Then I saw him as he started beating her’. I’m thinking, look at the taxi driver now, it could be anything and more than that – no. I only cut the woman’s hair,” Salih points out.
During the war, he says, he cut the hair of around 17,000 soldiers, although he had good experiences with some of them and bad experiences with others.
“Soldiers from the line came to me to get a haircut. They don’t have any money and they tell me, let Alija Izetbegović pay you, but they didn’t know that I cut hair for nothing,” Mešković recalls.
Appeal for the mayor of Tuzla
According to him, Salih plans to work for another two years, however, he has one wish and one message.
“The elderly population comes to me, they ask me to open a shop in Čaršija. I got 260 likes to open a shop. So I would like if our chief would allow me a 12-square-meter shop to have for older people, I would accept a student to teach him and I would leave the shop to him,” says Brico.
There is no choosing a hairstyle with him, he evaluates which hairstyle will suit whom best according to the shape of the head.
“Whoever doesn’t like it, can look for another hairdresser,” concludes Salih with a laugh.
Source: akta.ba
