From the 8-13th August 2020, a barbering and bike-obsessed group will congregate in the seaside town of Southport, the hometown of The Company of Master Barbers, for the 4th annual BarbersRide. Born out of a shared passion for barbering and motorbikes, this 5-day UK road trip is not to be missed.
As well as bringing like-minded folk together, the mission of BarbersRide is to raise as much funds and awareness for a chosen charity whilst enjoying the unbeatable sense of camaraderie that only a motorcycling road trip can offer. This year’s charity is the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
2020’s BarbersRide is set to be bigger and better than ever, with over 30 riders involved. The uncertainty and effects of lockdown have added unexpected challenges, however there are wishes waiting and the BarbersRide team are more determined than ever not just to create a memorable experience, but to raise money for an incredible charity in the process.
So far, six barbershops across England have committed to organising fundraising activities to support the cause, including The Company of Master Barbers, 6 Hub Barber Shop, Bond’s Gentlemen’s Barbershop, The Heartbreak Club, Christian Wiles Gentlemen’s Grooming and Gilly’s Barbers.
Boris Johnson has today announced the next easing of restrictions in England, which will take effect from Saturday 4th July.
With the UK’s COVID Alert level now reduced from 4 to 3, the Prime Minister has announced that although all steps are conditional, where it is not possible to stay 2 metres apart, 1 metre or more should be observed.
We welcome the news that barbers and hairdressers will also be able to reopen from the 4th July, with appropriate precautions in place, including the use of visors.
After a long, difficult wait, as of next Saturday, barbershops will be able to reopen their doors and welcome clients back to the chair. The Prime Minister said he will publish COVID secure guidelines for all sectors that are able to reopen.
While no further guidelines have yet been published regarding best practice, we expect to receive these in the coming days and will keep you up to date as and when we receive them.
Today, Monday 22nd June, barbershops and salons across both New York City and New Jersey are finally able to reopen their doors as they reach the much-anticipated second reopening phase.
One of the last areas in the US to reopen, this news will be warmly welcomed by both barbers and clients, with nail salons, spas, tanning salons and tattoo parlors also given the go-ahead to reopen.
New safety standards including increased hygiene practices will be in place to keep clients and staff safe, with many shops opening initially with a reduced capacity in order to adhere to social distancing.
BarberEVO welcomes this news and wishes New York and New Jersey well on their return to work.
First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced today the latest changes to the easing of the lockdown in Wales. The hairdressing, barbering and beauty sector are being urged to use the next three weeks to prepare their businessees for reopening by appointment only.
A follow up announcement is expected on the 9th July to confirm whether it is safe for businesses to reopen their doors from the 13th July.
At the moment, no specific guidance for the hair and beauty sector has been released. The NHBF has written to Ken Skates, the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales in the Welsh Government, urging for these guidelines to be released without delay so that shop and salon owners can prepare.
We were joined on Wednesday 17th June exclusively on EVOLive by inspirational barber, hairstylist, photographer and founder of American Crew, David Raccuglia.
It was a truly inspirational discussion, well worth the watch!
You can view the entire EVOLive episode below. Enjoy!
Andis Company and Central Standard Craft Distillery have come together to offer FREE Sanitizer and Maintenance kits for barbers to help them get back to work.
Andis Company is contributing their trust CoolCare Plus Spray and Clipper Oil along with a bonus 6-pack of Andis x Uppercut Deluxe Pomade.
Central Standard has started producing hand sanitizer instead of spirits and will be contributing three bottles of sanitizer to the kits.
To help barbers get back to work, Andis and Central Standard are providing free Sanitizer & Maintenance kits to the first 600 barbers to register using the form here.
Barbers and hairdressers will be able to reopen in Northern Ireland on 6 July.
It is among a series of measures agreed by Stormont ministers in an attempt to further ease the lockdown. Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill said those businesses should now ensure they have the appropriate safety measures in place.
Justice Minister Naomi Long said the indicative dates came with a ‘health warning’ and that if the rate of the virus increased, the dates would need to be pushed back.
We will continue to post updates as and when we receive them. This date does not apply to barbershops in Scotland, England or Wales, who are awaiting government guidelines on when they can reopen and under what restrictions.
As featured in issue 2 of BarberEVO North America – June 2018.
Bostonian Barbershop has become an institution and cornerstone of community in its local neighbourhood. CEO Erik Zaiatz discusses opening a barbershop that would have made his grandfather proud.
“My grandfather was a barber for over sixty years and had cut four generations of some families. I remember what it was like hanging out there when I was younger, seeing him interact with his customers, hearing the stories and even noticing the smells, the aftershave, the talc… I just love being there and there wasn’t really anything like that around here” says Erik.
After ten years in the making, the first Bostonian Barbershop opened in the summer of 2014 and was a family affair. Erik convinced his sister, a hairdresser, to return to barber school and with now manager Matt Penardi on-board, he opened shop in an old Bostonian shoe factory forty-five minutes south of Boston. With the help of his father and uncle, Erik renovated the space and quickly made quite an impression on the local community.
“We made a big splash when we opened the shop” he admits. “With our barbers, it’s all about attention to detail. They take their time whether it is a haircut, shave or beard trim. If you are trying out a new style, they are going to take their time and make sure you leave happy. We were one of the only shops doing hot towel, hot lather, straight razor shaves for some reason.”
Gentlemen would frequent the shop for decidedly gentlemanly cuts. At the time, local shops were churning out regular fades and line-ups but Bostonian offered the expertly coiffed pompadours and hard parts that were a swooping trend at the time. Each were set in place with a dollop of Bondafide Pomade, who have endorsed the shop since 2014. The barbers loved the products and both Erik and Lewis had a surprising amount in common from an early age.
He explains the meticulous attention to detail which led to patrons driving an hour in each direction for a cut and waiting times grew from a palatable thirty minutes to two to three hours. A few more stations were added to alleviate the waiting times but Erik quickly realised expansion was needed to another city. He had noticed the Fenway neighbourhood was lacking in barbershops and opened a larger store in the image of his first two years ago.
Still flooded with clients, Bostonian’s Whitman shop was recently relocated half a mile down the road to a 3000 sq ft space. It also allowed Erik a much larger workshop out back for the barber chair restoration, chair building and wood working he does for the shop. Bostonian’s CEO lost count after his first thirty barber chairs but his collection is quite considerable. The new space that tends to over one-hundred gents a day is simply stunning.
“The interiors of our shops are new world meets industrial” he says. “All the chairs are from the same company and are like one-hundred years old, 1906/1910. A lot of the décor is from that time too. We have hard floors, exposed pipes and brick walls. I love collecting antiques and we display them up in the shop. A lot of the décor is my grandfather’s. I have a lot of his old straight razors, dusters and hand clippers from his time barbering.”
Community has been a cornerstone of the brand since their inception. Despite expansion, waiting times at the shop can be as long as two to three hours on some days, four for particular barbers. The shops are not understaffed; they are just hugely popular. Bostonian operates a queue check system that gives an estimated time and locals can put their name down, go home and jump right back in. Erik explains the shop’s loyal patrons do not mind the wait.
“I think is cool to get your haircut at Bostonian,” he says, conscious to not sound arrogant. “A lot of people wear it as a badge of honour, they seem proud to wait. I mean, nobody wants to spend three hours waiting but this is their shop and these guys are their barbers and they wait because they will get a perfect haircut every time. We do a lot for the community, we sponsor kid’s sports team, donate to different charities. We have a great relationship with the community, we love them as much as they love us. It’s great!” he smiles.
Boston may be small but it is certainly not lacking in sports teams. The Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and Patriots all call the city home. New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium is just twenty-five minutes from the Whitman store but due to Boston’s infamously bad traffic, most players live in Rhode Island. A few do live in the city and visit the Fenway shop. Recently retired linebacker Jerod Mayo is one of the more well-known players who comes in twice a week for his work as a pundit.
“We have a few hockey players that come in when they are in the area. Fenway Park, where the Redsox play, is only a stepping distance away. A foul ball could probably hit our door. We have cut a bunch of them, they all live in the neighbourhood and play a lot of home games. A few of the more well known players, Steven Wright and Craig Kimbrel, we cut in the clubhouse. We cut a lot of the away team players too in between practice and warming up.”
Erik plans to use the impressive size of the new, old shop to bring the East Coast barbering community together. The West Coast is renowned for its barbering link ups but Erik say it’s not as prominent on his side of the country. He plans to extend the Bostonian’s idea of community and host regular barber socials for up to two hundred professionals and barbering students to share ideas. “We have space, we can accommodate, so we want to bring that together,” he finishes.
NHBF has today published an open letter sent today to the Rt. Hon Alok Sharma MP Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, stressing the urgent need for the Government to publish formal guidance regarding close proximity services, which includes hair and beauty salons and barbershops.
The letter can be read in full below:
Dear
Alok
I
am writing to stress the urgent need for the Government to publish
formal guidance regarding close proximity services.
As
you will know from our previous meetings and ongoing discussions with
your department, the National Hair & Beauty Federation has been
proactive in communicating the Government’s latest advice and
information to our members and the wider industry.
We
have also been a significant contributor to the draft guidelines on
‘Working Safely Guidance – Close Contact Services including Hair
and Beauty’. As well as attending a round table meeting with you on
22 May, we have provided continued technical advice to BEIS
officials. We put forward a representative selection of salons,
barbershops, beauty salons and freelancers to comment on the first
draft of the guidelines which were published late on Friday 5 June.
With a deadline of 5pm on Monday 8 June, many people from across the
industry willingly gave up time to meet the government’s timetable
and support these important developments understanding the urgent
need to publish guidance. Despite a real sense of progress, we have
heard nothing since.
There
is growing frustration at the continued delay in publishing these
guidelines, preventing hair salons, beauty salons and barbershops
from being able to fully prepare their businesses, staff and clients
for reopening.
We
have written to you previously about urgent need for guidance on PPE
in particular. Salons and barbershops have been unable to trade for
months, so if they are to make a financial investment in PPE, they
need to be confident that they are buying the right materials and
they need sufficient time to source supplies.
We
understand the latest advice is that these services will not re-open
until 4 July at the earliest but businesses need adequate time –
ideally two weeks – to redesign their premises, train staff, ensure
they have suitable PPE, communicate with clients regarding
operational changes, implement adequate hygiene standards, and come
to terms with the changes necessary to ensure the safety of
themselves and their clients.
We
therefore urge you to publish the guidance without any further delay.
We are available to provide any support necessary in order to ensure
this outcome.
We were joined today on EVOLive #25 by Booksy CEO Stefan Batory and by VIP Ambassador Program Lead Adrian Ward, to discuss the ongoing global situation facing barbers as they either re-open or plan to do so.
We were also joined by global educators Mark Gaye and Keino Valley – who kindly updated us on their own situations and plans for the future.
Don’t worry if you missed it – watch it in full below!
