The story of the Beatles, of course they all want to hear them here. That's why some of them stand under the green awning at ten in the morning and look in the shop window, at the four dancing dolls of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who continue to play there, powered by tiny solar modules. Yoko Ono once sued a nearby bar for advertising by her husband's name (she called herself "John Lemon"). That's why there are only the little dolls here - as a very subtle hint. Because what does this slim barber have to do with the world stars? You really don't see that out here, on the edge of Hamburg's Reeperbahn. Inside, Franz Stenzel and Ute Bickeleit are waiting, who initially felt like they were in the zoo when the tourists stood in front of the glass pane and took photos.When that was still allowed, they came in regularly: tour groups of 30 people who looked around the “Salon Harry”.
You get used to that too, says Bickeleit.
She has been doing her hair here for 38 years, her husband for almost 45 years. He started in 1978 and took over the salon ten years later from namesake Harry.
The shop is said not to have changed hands within a family once, and people were always waiting for the right successor.
Stenzel is still waiting, although he could have been retired for a decade.
But a salon like this one, which has already experienced the suffering of two world wars, the happiness of reunification and the golden years, is not something you give up easily.
Only when the corona pandemic came in 2020 did they also think here that the time had come.
Many places adorn themselves with a Beatles story
Stenzel is currently leafing through an old magazine in Polish, up to a picture in black and white: The Beatles, of course. He bought the magazine before he moved from Gdansk to Germany. First to Bonn, there he did the hairdressing of the politicians from the Federal Palace. But he didn't like the climate there: “I just grew up by the sea.” When he later went to the coast for a vacation and missed the exit to Kiel on the way, he landed in Hamburg for the first time - and stayed. This is where his paths and those of the Beatles should cross; even if not in person. Because when Stenzel moved to the Elbe in 1974, the musicians had long been gone. They made their first appearances at the Große Freiheit in 1960. They performed regularly in the city until the end of 1962. Only then did her world career begin.Today a square is named after them, and there are still some places in the district that have a Beatles story. The following has been told about the salon ever since: It is said to have been Stenzel's former boss Harry who first cut the mushroom hairstyles for the Beatles, which countless people all over the world later imitated.
Sometimes Stenzel also thinks that the whole world, at least that of the men, has already been here, in the little shop. He pulls the guest books out of the cupboard in which some of them have been immortalized: actors and artists, athletes and restaurateurs. There is an entry in Hebrew (musicians from Israel) and a few pages further an entry in Arabic (Hamburg carpet dealer). Uwe Seeler (HSV legend) regularly gets his hair styled in the salon, as do players and board members of city rivals FC St. Pauli. Udo Walz, the recently deceased king of the guild, was also here once. A broadcaster wanted to rent the salon so he could film Walz at work there. Back then, Bickeleit was alone in the shop and said yes, although she didn't even know who Walz was at that time. The two keep getting such inquiries from the media,most of them no longer accept it. Sometimes it's about the Beatles, but sometimes it's supposed to be very personal. "Once someone said he wanted to see Franz in bed when he got up in the morning," says Bickeleit. No, she said: "It's just me."