Ninety-year-old Trinidadian barber soldiering on

(Trinidad Guardian) With steady hands, Ramsaran Moonsammy chipped away at the hair of his son seated in his barber chair when Guardian Media visited him.

It’s like second nature to him now, after all, he’s been doing this for over 70 years.

Moonsammy, who turned 90 yesterday, has been barbering professionally since he has 17 years old.

He told Guardian Media he learned to cut hair from his father, who came to this country from India and had 10 sons.

“So he used to cut we hair…so I learned to do barbering from him.”

He said he and his brothers then started taking turns cutting each other’s hair.

Moonsammy said he got better at it and soon other boys in the Tunapuna village started coming to him for their haircuts.

After he got married he opened up his barbershop on the Southern Main Road in Curepe which he ran for approximately 20 years.

“I had fellas (sic) used to come from far.”

His shop, along with his job as a gardener at Queen’s Hall in Port-of-Spain, ensured he could take care of his wife and eight children.

He also found time to plant rice.

“I worked very hard you know.”

Over the years his family has grown tremendously.

He now has 24 grandchildren and 34 great-grandchildren.

It has become a family tradition for him to give the boy children in the family their first haircuts.

“I cut my grandchildren hair.”

It is no secret that Moonsammy isn’t the regular 90-year-old.

So what is his secret?

“Plenty of hard work and I play cricket all my years,” he said.

He also walked a lot and still does.

Moonsammy said he never had time for, “idling or playing the fool” instead he sacrificed to take care of his family.

“Look at my age and I feel if you bring a 90 years man now and put him to me and tell him to do what I could do he wouldn’t do it.”

In recent years though his shop, which is now in the front yard of his Pasea, Tunapuna home, has not been so much a business but a liming spot for old friends. At his age, he prefers payment in companionship.

But as the saying goes all good things must come to an end, so he is now hanging up his scissors and leaving the shop to his son.

He felt that everything he wants to accomplish he has done so and now for the rest of his days will be dedicated to getting much-needed rest and spending time with his family.

Moonsammy spent his birthday yesterday surrounded by those said loved ones and saying prayers.