WHEN TALITHA MADDISON GRADUATED FROM UNIVERSITY, SHE KNEW HER LIFE WASN’T GOING TO BE BEHIND A DESK. FIVE YEAR’S LATER, IN JUNE OF 2019, SHE OPENED MADDISON’S BARBERS IN HER HOMETOWN OF REIGATE.

“I’ve always found hair and fashion really interesting creatively,” explains Talitha. “But only men’s hair and only men’s fashion if I’m honest. Even now, my wardrobe is just a bunch of men’s clothes dressed up with my make up!”

                  Talitha started her barbering career back in 2014, but had been out of the industry for over a year before opening Maddison’s Barbers: “I burnt myself out. I completely fell out of love with it and my tattoo studio businesses were taking off so I threw myself into those.”

                  In early 2019 though, Talitha started to get excited by the work on other barber’s Instagram pages and she began to feel that same joy she felt when she first got into barbering. Luckily for her, she regularly has agents calling her up when new shops become available and when one cropped up where she lives, she felt she had room to express herself in the men’s hair world and couldn’t turn the opportunity down.

                  The shop is family run – given that it is her family name above the door, everyone gets to feel involved, even Talitha’s 4-year-old nephew, who carries a business card around with him because he knows the shop has his name on it. There are currently three chairs in the shop and keeps the services offered fairly simple.

                  “I wanted to keep the price list short and sweet, so there’s only one type of haircut that covers everything, one type of beard trim and then we have a ‘Face Works’ service which is a hot towel treatment with a face mask and a quick eyebrow wax. We use Triumph and Disaster skin care range for this service which are great.”

                  When it came to designing the shop, Talitha took a lot of inspiration from shops she had seen in California, Australia, Japan and Dubai: “I wanted a light, stripped-back, minimal but masculine look. Clean lines, and a rigid colour palette of white, black, grey and light blue. I was very strict on this one; it needed to have an adult vibe but still chill. We had stuff delivered and sent back so many times, it all had to fit. I’m obsessed with neon signs, I think they add so much to a bare interior.”

                  The look is part of the shop’s charm, and it definitely stands out on the high street, with its white walls and neon sign. It certainly doesn’t look like anything else on the high street and you can’t help but notice its slick style. More important than the look though is the sense of community that Talitha hopes to create at Maddison’s.

                  “I’m really trying to encourage the guys that come in to communicate with each other. I do the same at the tattoo studios, I like for people to engage,” explains Talitha. “With the younger, more shy guys that come in, it’s really important to push them to talk to someone who might be in at the same time or to me, it’s about social skills. I’ve only been open for a few weeks but already a few young men have come in and talked about their mental health, which is great. I hope they feel like it’s a space to do so. I don’t know what it is about being a barber – everyone tells me everything!”

                  Talitha’s welcoming attitude and openness has led her to not only run three successful businesses, but also to become an ambassador for New Zealand-based skin and hair care brand, Triumph & Disaster: “They approached me in 2016. I used the products on my face after the meeting at Thy Barber and was sold straight away on the ethos and the quality of the products. I really respect Dion Nash, the owner, and Phil, who runs the UK side of things, he helps me out a lot.”

                  Asked which product from the range was her favourite, she said it is hands down the Rock and Roll Suicide Scrub.

                  “It’s insane. Dion says I’m only supposed to use it once a week but I use it way more than that – I’m always asking them to send me some more! My boyfriend is always nicely stocked up on the hair products and he loves the moisturiser.”

                   Looking to the future, Talitha still has a lot of hopes, some as simple as get a dog, others more challenging, like buying a house or watching Arsenal have a decent season whilst cutting hair in the new shop… more importantly, she’s ready to relax – three businesses in three years; it’s no wonder she’s exhausted.

After a long meeting with the State of Connecticut, CT Barber Expo founder Jay Majors has made the decision to push the date of the 2020 show to October 10-12.

The floorplan is behind updated for vendors to allow social distancing, there will be sanitation stations spread throughout the facility and have made the decision to use two rooms rather than one in order to space out the entire event, as well as minimizing the amount of competitors on the stage – giving those that compete an even better opportunity to possibly win a trophy or a Rolex.

On Saturday, October 10th, the annual Barber Grammy Awards will take place at the Ballroom of the Connecticut Convention Center, then across Sunday 11th and Monday 12th, there will be range of education seminars as well as the Barber Battle & Expo.

For more information, visit www.ctbarberexpo.com

Over the weekend, the team from Wahl Professional’s DISRUPTOUR 2020 combined to deliver an Instagram video update following the postponement of many of the key dates of the tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Household names like Trevor Moots, Nieves Almaraz, John Carmona, Lisa Finucane, Kevin Nguyen and of course Byrd Mena teamed up (remotely!) to advise that DISRUPTOUR 2020 would be detoured – and ready to come back in full in 2021.

Watch the video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBGrxk6HdK4/

Stay tuned on the 2021 details of Disruptour here: https://www.disruptour.com

Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon, co-owners of Squire Technologies, the all-in-one platform powering barbershop operations, have committed $20,000 to the fight against injustice.

In an announcement made on the 3rd of June via Squire’s social channels, the co-owners made clear their stance on the events of the past several weeks in America. “What we stand for is clear: Black Lives Matter.”

Squire will work to be part of the solution, and will donate the generous sum equally amongst four organisations: Equal Justice Initiative, Black Lives Matter, Detroit Justice Center and Campaign Zero.

We at BarberEVO applaud this stance and wish to state our own support for justice, equality and societal change as we collectively seek to stamp out all forms of racism, bigotry and injustice.

BarberEVO is thrilled to report that Adam Sloan will be Chairing the Hairdressing Industry Advisory Board as well as the Barbering from June 2020.

Adam has been in the Hair Industry for 42 years now, specialising in Hairdressing and Barbering, and based on the passion he has shown during his recent appearances on #EVOLive, we know his love for the industry remains constant.

As well as founding the Men’s Hairdressing Federation, Adam works closely with City and Guilds on many lovels and states that “education is the past, present and future of our industry.” Adam added that he is “deeply honored to be asked to Chair City and Guilds Hairdressing Industry Advisory Board as well as the City & Guilds Barbering Industry Advisory Board.”

We have no doubt that he will do great things in his new role and wish him the very best of luck and a massive congratulations.

The NHBF has teamped up with organisations representing the hospitality, leisure and retail industry to put pressure on the Government to raise the threshold for support for businesses facing hardship due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The #raisethebar campaign is pushing for the £25,000 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant to be made available to all businesses with a business rates value of up to £150,000. This would help many salons and barbershops in cities with higher business rates to deal with cash flow challenges, such as rents, that wage subsidies do not address. Currently, the £25,000 grant is only open to salons and barbershops with a rateable value of up to £51,000.

Ian Egerton, President of the National Hair & Beauty Federation and owner of The Stress Exchange in London and said, “By ignoring businesses such as mine with business rates just over the £51,000 threshold, the Government is storing up trouble to come. Not only am I not entitled to any financial grants, I also have no income at all, yet quarterly rents are still expected to be paid at the end of this month. This is not sustainable. A VAT delay does not help as ultimately the money still has to be paid back. I do not expect the government to fund failing businesses, however with no means of income and outgoings still expected, they urgently need a common sense approach to fairness.”

Hilary Hall, Chief Executive of NHBF added, “The government support has been focussed on small and micro businesses which has benefited many of our Members. But this campaign work is essential for our larger Members who have received little or no government support and rightly feel that they’ve fallen through the cracks. We hope that working together with other organisations as part of the #raisethebar campaign will increase our voice and help get these businesses the support they need to ensure their longer term survival.”

DERT PRESENTS HIGH TEXTURE

INSPIRED BY LOOKS AND STYLES FROM CLASSIC LITERATURE, MEN’S GROOMING PIONEER DAVID RACCUGLIA HAS CREATED A FRESH NEW BARBERING TREND RELEASE CALLED HIGH TEXTURE. JOINING FORCES WITH PAUL WILSON AND THE TEAM FROM ART + SCIENCE SALON, DAVID’S NEW TREND RELEASE CELEBRATES OLD SCHOOL TECHNIQUES.

The campaign was commissioned by DERT, a new socially conscious book brand, calling on the barber industry to join in promoting the cause of children’s literacy. DERT is launching a new initiative that provides storybooks to barbershops in under-resourced black communities.

HIGH TEXTURE is inspired by the great 19th century dandy authors like Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman with their existential outlook and witty quips. A grand sense of Victorian adventure and Gothic horror is in the spirit of High Texture’s styling, reflecting writings of classic 19th-century literature greats like Robert Louis Stevenson, author of many classics including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Treasure Island. 

These influences collide with the great African American writing tradition of black writers like James Baldwin and Paul Laurence Dunbar with their call-to-arms for social change by wielding the power of the written prose and poetry. These eccentric literary inspirations are infused with a musical jolt, fueled by the soulful energy of Funk musicians like James Brown, and the impeccable glamour of Little Richard – where pure raw substance and emotion is expressed with a flashy layered personal style. High Texture compresses and fast-forwards it all to the 21st-century man.

DERT commissioned David Raccuglia to photograph 10 top American models in a range of hair expressions and fashion looks as part of a social campaign for the barber industry. High Texture promotes the cause of children’s literacy by debuting the social enterprise DERT to the barber industry. DERT is on a mission to encourage reading and learning by inspiring barbers to be literacy advocates and activating barbershops into reading friendly spaces.

“David and I are often focused on relevant trends when we create collections. What had us excited about this project is the fact that through design it would transcend trend,” says Paul Wilson, Global Artistic Director of American Crew and co-owner of Art & Science. “Art + Science salon is packed with incredible talent, so I brought one of our best master barbers, Anthony Johnson, as well Alice Salazar, our most diverse and skilled stylist. The highly textural shapes are architectural and sculptural and span all eras. We have never had so much fun on a project.”

“The barbershop has always been a space for men to gather and share stories in their journey to improve themselves,” adds David Raccuglia. “Expressing one’s style is a unique form of story-telling and barbers have the power to deepen the lives of their customers by being a catalyst to personal transformation. Like movies, sports and music, stories and characters from literature provide a universal experience that can help us dig deeper, and guide us towards being our best.”

DERT’s mission is to cultivate better lives and a stronger community through reading, stories, and the transformative power of books. DERT seeks to bring books to barbershops and salons worldwide, inspiring industry professionals to be literacy advocates that encourage their customers to best transform themselves on the inside and out. 

With each purchase, DERT donates a portion of its profits towards the donation of their children’s storybooks to literacy programs in barbershops. DERT’s social mission is to ensure that all children identify as readers ­by having access to books and being read to on a regular basis. Reading together is vital for all children through their preschool years and beyond. DERT publishes a unique line of books and learning tools designed to engage families in reading through all stages of life. 

Two brothers, an Olympia book curator, Ernesto Chavez, and a Brooklyn graphic designer, Marcos Chavez, founded DERT. Inspired to brand a new bookselling model by a symbol of nature (dirt) and the ethos of technical arts (design), the Chavez brothers formulated the concept of deep enhancement of reader technology known as D-E-R-T.

Learn more about the foundation and find out how to get involved by visiting dertbook.com.

When CEO and founder Jerry Nettuno and his team first heard about COVID-19 and as Safer at Home initiatives began to expand from one state to another, Schedulicity made the decision to waive all of their fees until July 1.

As time progressed and some barbershops and salons began to reopen, it became clear that the deadline was perhaps too soon for many of their clients. With that in mind, as of June 1, they have extended their waived fees for all businesses, including current, new and returning, until August 1. Any business can use the Schedulicity platform for free until August 1.

To find out more, or to sign up for Schedulicity, click here: https://bit.ly/2MrrTQ4

To help embed best practices and assist building the confidence of learners and their clients on how to return work safely, VTCT is releasing six new Infection Prevention qualifications for the hair, barbering, beauty, nail and sports industries, which will become a pre-requisite on all VTCT and ITEC qualifications from the 1st of August 2020.

The first qualification, which will be available for registration from Wednesday 10th June, will be Infection Prevention for Hairdressing and Barbering Services.

The VTCT have used information and materials from the World Health Organisation, national authorities in the UK and around the world, as well as learning from the experiences of those in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, who have been able to safely re-open barbershops and salons.

The qualification will allow learners to develop knowledge on the causes, transmissions and effects of COVID-19, the importance of social responsibility and the methods used to control transmission, such as correct hand hygiene and the use of PPE. They will also gain an understanding of the safe working practices required to protect themselves and their clients.

VTCT’s Chief Executive, Alan Woods OBE, said: “We take our responsiblity to the sector very seriously and are looking to help engender our centres, learners and their clients with the confidence that as things open up, their safety will remain paramount.”

For more information, click here: https://bit.ly/2MoKyvV

We sat down on Monday 1st of June with representatives from the Hair and Barber Council, NHBF, VTCT, MHFed, British Master Barbers, British Barber Association, Habia and City & Guilds, to discuss the issue of state registration for barbering in the UK.

Don’t worry if you missed it. You can watch the full discussion below!