Evangelistas Barbershop

Paul the Barber’s Family History

Hello everyone,

I guess I should start this story from as far back in time as possible and I have managed to research our history to the year 1378, where we found that our family name is derived from the personal name of Evangelista, which it is said reflects devotion to San Giovanni Evangelista, which translates to St. John the Evangelist which in turn is derived from the Greek "evangelistes", which means "good news".

One of the earliest references we could find to this name is a record of one Giovanni Evangelista, a cleric, writer and teacher mentioned in 1378. notable bearers of our surname include another Giovanni, he was a goldsmith, mathematician and draftsman cited in 1455. Seventeen century records from Casamassima (Bari) mentions the birth of Angela Antonia Evangelista, daughter of Vito Evangelista and Rosa Pisingo, registered on the 24th November 1630. We also read of a marriage between Pietro Antonio Evangelista and Angela Mattea, also registered in Casamassima on the 18th May 1693 and also their son Bartolemeo Evangelista, documented in 1703. Michelangelo Evangelista and Anna Di Paolo were wed in another small village near Bari called Corato on the 20th December 1727. Apparently, there are other bearers of our surname include Francesco Paolo Evangelista, a sculptor born in 1837. Then came a Gaetano Evangelista, a writer born in 1906, there was also Alfredo Evangelista, a music composer mentioned in 1928, then came my Grandfather Angelo Evangelista born in Rome 1891, who was to begin our barbering dynasty in Linthouse near the town of Govan with his first Barbers chair, he also had a brother named Joseph who was to take a different path in hairdressing and become a very successful Ladies Hairdresser in London, Paris and Italy where he won many top competitions and awards from 1937 and was patronised by Leading Society and attended to Ladies for the Royal Coronation. Then came my own father Adolpho Evangelista married to Yolanda De Angelis, both born 1923 in Scotland they had three sons Ramonde, Myself and Ricardo. There’s are a few “voids” left within my research, but I haven’t finished the work on all my family connections as yet, as you can well understand it takes so much time and effort to do, but one day I will or perhaps one of my sons will take up the work.

So here we have finally arrived at me, Paul Evangelista born in 1951 and married to Connie Jannetta born 1953 both born in Edinburgh and married in Edinburgh we have two sons Paul & Vincent. Now we leap a couple of decades to my first day in my father’s barbershop in 1967 where unknown to me, I was to embark on a fantastic and interesting journey through the winding paths we sometimes take in life and it was also to be the beginning of my “life education” and to gain a variety of knowledge from my clients (not forgetting to give a good haircut in return!)

My father was a great Barber and a great friend to many of his clients, someone to talk and joke with but ultimately walking out with a great haircut, he did teach me well in the art of barbering and that took 3yrs, and of course there were the “good times and the bad times” but his reward from all his patient efforts teaching me, was to go fishing in his day off and fish for salmon and he enjoyed this great occasion with his good friends once a week to some of the finest salmon rivers that are found here in Scotland. Unfortunately the only aspect that failed to “rub off” on me was his ability to tell jokes and funny stories which he was famed for in his Barbershop his clients liked that quality in him and there was many a time when the shop would be in full laughter at his jokes and gossip talk incidentally, history tells us that ancient Barbershops were centres for news, talking politics and gossip…so I think there has been no change there for a thousand years or so!

Those were very enjoyable learning years for me but eventually the urge to move on and do my own thing became overpowering and so I left to open up my own Barbershop in 1972 and after 5 yrs on my own, my father sold his barbershop in Govan and so once again we worked together for many years.

It was unfortunate that he did not live long enough to see his two fine grandsons follow in the family footsteps, I think he would be very proud to see them Barbering now, but such is life…and such is death, we all move on the best way we can.

So my story continues through to my own Barbershop which I am now in my 34th enjoyable year in the town of Johnstone and it’s friendly people (wow! doesn’t time fly when your enjoying yourself) and I give great applaud and thanks to my clientele for helping me make Evangelista's Barbershop a success through their continued loyalty and also to thank my new clients who found me through "word of mouth" and our website/webcam. I have said on numerous occasions that "when you walk into my Barbershop you're never a stranger, just a friend that I haven't yet met".

I must tell you a story from the first few weeks in my own barbershop, so here we have a young Paul the Barber who had a lot of life learning to do and one day this guy came in to have his hair cut, and so we were chatting about where I came from and how the new barbershop was doing, just the normal kind of chat, and so after he paid for his haircut he mentioned that he worked in a nearby factory that produced Olive Oil and said that if I gave him £1.75 he would get me a 5 litre can of the stuff, so I thought it was a great opportunity and duly handed over the money thinking it was a great deal, I had expected his return but lo and behold…I never did see him again!

Stupid me! Who has ever heard of a factory in Scotland that produces Olive Oil, he must have thought, here was a right mug, and very “green behind the ears”, so as the day wore on and he had failed to turn up. I asked another customer if there was such a local factory, his smiling reply was, "not that I’m aware of, why do you want to know?". I was too embarrassed to tell him the story of the guy whom I gave over money for the “local Olive Oil”, so there lay my first valuable lesson in business!

The Worldcare Organisation

I have always been an environmentally thinking person and I do respect our beautiful planet and all life on Earth, I remember displaying a poster in my barbershop which I bought in the 80’s many of my clients commented how true these words were even in 1980 they were from an old American Indian Chief who prophesised:

"Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten"

These words are so true of events that are happening just now and I felt the urge to help and contribute to a healthier planet and realised that after a few years in business, some of my high profile business clients were interested in what I had to say about our environment, so realising that I had a "captive audience" to preach my idea of creating an organisation called Worldcare a non-profit and charitable organisation dedicated to the improvement of our environment to which I would give my spare time, and so through their generosity and involvement in sponsoring Glass Banks back in 1989, Worldcare was created and started recycling glass to raise funds for the local St Vincent’s Hospice, and over a period of between 2-3yrs, since Worldcare’s inception in 1998, it successfully raised public awareness on the importance of recycling and how to look after our environment, we covered a lot of environmental ground with our local clean-up campaigns and recycling various materials such as glass/cans and cardboard, we even had our very own marathon runner and we were also given the opportunity to collect redundant computers and printers which was very lucrative and with help from our sponsors we raised enough revenue to purchased the Worldcare van and through one of our other sponsors, they converted the engine to run on natural gas which then made our vehicle completely environment friendly and actually influenced one of my clients who owned a local transport company to buy one of the new breed of environmentally friendly trucks of that time, we received great local and not so local publicity for our endeavours and in 1992, Worldcare received a prestigious environmental award from The Shell Best of Better Britain Campaign for our recycling efforts in which my most memorable memory of this event was to travel to London with my wife and family to receive this award from Sir David Attenborough whom we all know as a very learned man actively raising great awareness in the preservation of our planet and ecosystem.

This was indeed a great occasion and achievement for the Worldcare Organisation and it’s few volunteers which was to be further enhanced a few weeks later by the Scottish version of the same award but on this occasion to be presented at Stirling Castle by Magnus Magnusson K.B.E the Scottish equivalent to Sir David, so as you can imagine we were all very proud and excited at the success of Worldcare.

Unfortunately, I was becoming more and more involved in the running of the organisation as volunteers thinned out and it was beginning to affect the time or rather lack of time I gave to with my wife Connie and bringing up our two young sons, and secondly, the smooth running of the Barbershop, as there wasn’t a day gone by without phone calls in between haircutting concerning Worldcare activity, it was becoming too much for me to control and with the lack of volunteers to delegate the organisation and work, something had to give and sadly it had to be Worldcare, but it always remains dear to me and perhaps one of these days I might have the opportunity to give it a rebirth.

The training of Paul and Vincent

This whole story is a tribute to my grandfather Angelo, my father Adolfo, and to my two sons Paul & Vincent who now continue in our family tradition of Barbers into a fourth generation.

So I started the training process of my eldest son Paul jnr who like me, was to take 3yrs to learn the family skills, and like all parents, we know that teaching your own anything in life is not an easy task, but we eventually made it through the trials and tribulations put before us, and he was eventually “trained up and shipped out” to make his own mark in the hairdressing world but also to make way for his younger brother Vincent where he and I embarked on another 3yr intensive training programme, and so after the 6yr training process of my two sons, I believe this is where my very own “deforestation” took place..... hence the lack of hair!

But hey, it’s been worth the Blood, Sweat and Tears and at least my wife Connie and me came out at the other end relatively happy.

Present Day

So here I am to the present day telling you of my family history to the best of my knowledge, I hope you have found it interesting.

Before I go, I must tell you about 'The Virtual Barbershop Experience'. This was initially the idea of one of my clients and great friend Stefano, the creator of this website, and after a great deal of discussion over a haircut or two, we thought that it would be an interesting “people project” to install a webcam in the barbershop.

With the live Virtual Barbershop Experience now discontinued, I can share with you some cuttings from the archives by ways of a little sampling of the daily comings and going of my work day, and you can of course “look in” on me from time to time and see me doing what I love doing most...cutting hair and listening to a variety of music.

Thank you for your time and I wish you and yours all the best that life can bring.

Tonsorially yours,

Paul the Barber