Barber who charged extra for ‘special needs boys’ had ‘no idea’ it was offensive

A barber who placed a sign in his shop charging extra to cut the hair of ‘special needs boys under 15’ says he didn’t know what ‘special needs’ meant.

Shwan Kadir, 49, faced a wave of criticism when he introduced the extra price at his Ranya unisex salon in Sutton, London.

He even got a call from somebody in Scotland who abused him for putting up the sign.

And now following a social media backlash on Facebook, he has taped up the extra charge pricing.

However he did admit that he charges an extra £2 if cutting the hair of a child takes more than one hour.

The controversy started when Facebook user Leanne Caffrey shared a post that said: ‘I never out small businesses. But this has made me really cross.’

Shwan, who lives with his three children in Sutton, said: ‘The sign being there was by mistake. I didn’t know that these words were against the law.

‘We have an autism specialist here and we had no idea. If she had told me that the word was wrong then I would have just taken it down.

‘I made a mistake, and I fixed it, I am only human. I am not sure what more I can do.

‘I’m saddened by the way this has been taken. Me personally and my staff have always done our best to be strong members of the community and we love to speak with you all on your visits.’

The sign was up for two months and was taken down when complaints started coming through.

He added: ‘The hate has affected me, but the local people know what our business is like.

‘They have defended me a lot online. I have received thousands of supportive messages from our customers today.

‘There are a lot of kids who don’t like getting their hair cut. If some customers take more than an hour we may charge them an extra two pounds, but this is extremely rare.

‘We are very good at dealing with kids who have different disabilities.

‘We have customers come from all across England because we are the only ones they trust to cut their hair and other places have refused them.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.