Schedulicity continues to support the hair and beauty industries with its #SchedulicityCares grants after updating the way the program works in order to support as many people as possible during this global pandemic.
After launching on April 1, the team have been giving away a $500 grant every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with any Schedulicity business can apply.
This week’s winners included JuKenya and Kela from RSOG Salon, who blessed her client, who is an essential worker and is on the front lines. The next recipient was About Face Skin Care, who gave back by making meals for families with children that live in local motels. The third and final recipient was Ashley of Holy Hands Massage. Even though she was closed, she was sharing self-massage tips to help you sooth your body as well as stretch.
Keen to continue to share advice and information with their customers, Schedulicity will be holding another Town Hall on Thursday June 18 at 9pm EST/6pm PST, with Lee Resnick leading a panel made up of some of the biggest names in barbering including Marcus Harvey, Mari de Monte, Alan Lipman, Brittany Fitapelli and more. Sign up to join the town hall here.
To find out more about #SchedulicityCares or to apply for the grant yourself, click here.
Europe’s largest barber exhibition will return in 2021, with the organisers behind Barber Connect announcing the dates for the 2021 show today.
Returning to the International Centre in Telford, Barber Connect 2021 will take place on Sunday 6th and Monday 7th of June 2021.
Whilst the event will be sorely missed in 2020, all at BarberEVO fully support the decision to postpone until next year, and can’t wait to attend, participate, exhibit and more… the comeback is always stronger than the setback!
With over 80,000 reported fatalities as a result of Covid-19, America has been hit hard by the pandemic. Each one of the 50 states have adopted their own phased plans to re-open various parts of their economies, with barbershops open now for several weeks in some states, and barbershops in other states still several weeks away from being allowed to reopen.
Barbershop management and point of sale system software company, Squire Technologies, have raised the substantial sum of money as part of a series B round of funding.
Series B funding is a round designed to taking a business to the next level, beyond the development stage. With this latest round of funding, the firm has now raised over $46.2 million to date.
CEO and co-founder Songe LaRon commented, “Small businesses are hurting right now. Fortunately, barbershops are well-positioned to thrive in an economic downturn since people will always need haircuts.”
Company President and co-founder Dave Salvant added, “Our goal has always been to put our customers first and be a resource in times of need.”
The company have also launched a new website designed to help barbers in North America and in the UK. Visit : https://www.helpbarbershops.com for more information.
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.
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.
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.”
