The 51-year-old barbershop on Monday marked Day 1 there. After closing as usual at 3 p.m. Saturday, the barbers and others spent about two hours moving to the new building. It didn’t move far, just a bit east from the old location in the former Hamilton West Shopping Center.
The new space has a feature very rare for barbering locales: a large garage with lots of windows that can be raised, as it was Monday afternoon, to let in fresh air.
“I think it’s great,” William Bozarth, a customer of 19 years, said about the open-air option. “Spring or fall, we’re going to enjoy that.”
Nathan Krause, of Krause Electric in Hamilton, who transformed the car wash into a barber shop with a auto-repair garage motif, happened to be getting his hair cut on Monday afternoon.
“It was fun. It was challenging. It was an interesting adventure,” he said about the project.
“We ran into a few problems here and there, but figured it out,” said shop owner Ryan Haynes. “You’ve got to think outside the box sometimes when you turn a car wash into a barber shop.”
“Even without the door open, it feels airy,” Bozarth said.
“Very happy with the way it turned out,” said barber Joe Templeton. “I think both old and new customers will be very impressed.”
Although he likes the new location, Templeton said he misses the old shop, which he noted, “had its own unique feel to it.”
“I miss it because I grew up going there, and then in my young-adult life, before working there,” said Templeton, who aside from Haynes is joined in clipping hair by Steve Mallicote, who started working there in 1968, and Scott Page.
The shop had to move because the shopping center’s new owner, Construction Design Management of Bowling Green, Ky., is converting it into a diverse group of businesses.
Haynes said the shop, which offers $15 haircuts, is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. It does not take reservations.
“I think it’s a huge improvement,” Bozarth said, as he awaited his haircut. “The look is definitely more upscale, more modern. But I’m sure the haircuts will be just the same.”
Bozarth said he is a longtime customer “because my wife likes my haircuts. You don’t mess with that kind of success.”
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