Made Man
With a diverse clientele that ranges from local college students to business heavyweights to pro athletes, Made Man Barbershop in the neighborhood of Chelsea strives to deliver an authentic barbering experience straight out of the 1920s and 1930s. “I feel that the true art of barbering started in this country at that time and really took off,” says Sam Chulpayev, founder of Made Man Barbershop. “We try to give you that sense of membership without the fee by offering complimentary neck clean ups to a top shelf open bar on Thursdays through Sundays for waiting clients to highly individualized consults,” he says.
In further trying to re-create the Prohibition-era style, Chulpayev and his wife Natalie designed the 500-square-foot shop interiors with exposed brick, reclaimed oak barrels, marble countertops and an antiques display that includes the first electric shaver and the first razor blade (Chulpayev opened a second 1,000-square-foot location directly across the street in the same vein).
With a service menu ranging from $12 for a neck clean up to $45 for a shave and facial, Made Man Barbershop provides the kind of high quality service at reasonable rates that prompted Chulpayev to open shop in the first place.
This expanded second location of Made Man Barbershop allows for seven classic oversized Belmont chairs.
Fellow Barbershop
When we openedour first shop [at Crosby St in Soho], we opened it out of necessity. At the time, in 2006, if you wanted to get a haircut, you either had to go to a $10 barbershop or you had to go to a $90 salon. Our model stays true to time-honored barber shop traditions, but elevates the barbering aspect of it,” says Sam Buffa, Fellow Barber co-founder. “Our concept from the start has always been straight forward, hassle-free, quality services without the pretension and expense of a salon. Fellow Barber is not about what’s trendy. We’re about barbering, we’re about the craft, we’re about the skilled labor. Barbering is an art form, it’s romantic, it’s a skill, it’s a craft.”
According to Buffa, the various locations were opened in emerging and up-and-coming neighborhoods that had the potential to attract a diverse array of clients. Each addition is grounded in the original concept of creating an establishment where the barbershop is more than just a grooming emporium and a place where clients could hang out, connect and converse to resuscitate the sense of community. Though, each location is different in design so as to resonate with the neighborhood in which it is servicing.
Fellow Barber services are provided on a walk-in basis only, with the menu ranging from $18 for a beard trim to $85 for a shave and haircut.
Harry's Corner Shop
Harry’s Corner Shop brings our online brand to life in the real world,” says Jeff Raider, co-founder and CEO of Harry’s. “It’s meant to be an intimate spot where neighborhood regulars and newcomers can easily make appointments, hang out, get a great haircut or shave from the best barbers around, and discover new products that they wouldn’t find at a typical barber shop.” Located in the middle of one of the last residential neighborhoods of SoHo, Harry’s caters to everyone from local regulars to celebrities to international visitors who are hip to the Harry’s brand.
From $15 for a beard trim to $70 for a haircut and shave, Harry’s also offers a selection of curated lifestyle products such as Makr leather goods, Sleepy Jones boxers, Geneva portable speakers and Biltwell motorcycle helmets in addition to its full line of grooming essentials.
Located on the Lower East Side, Freemans Sporting Club Barbershop was built on the idea of providing fashion-conscious men with a place to get a haircut in a relatively manly environment. “We felt like there needed to be a shop that was in between the $12 chop shop and the $100 salon experience. We wanted to create a place that had the energy of a regular guy’s neighborhood chop shop, but with the advanced level of hairstyling that you might find at a salon,” says Miles Elliot, owner/barber of Freemans Sporting Club Barbershop. “In New York, it felt like the craft of barbering was dying. In my opinion, a true barber doesn’t only know how to cut hair; he or she needs to have a well-rounded and in-depth understanding of men’s grooming overall.”
Freemans Sporting Club Barbershop
While the original location opened in 2005 with four chairs in the back of the Freemans Sporting Club menswear store as a secret barbershop, the recent move to a new space next door allowed for more room and seven chairs. “For our new shop, we wanted to keep a masculine feel but move away from the ‘old-timey’ look that we pioneered when Freemans originally opened. All of the stations were modeled after vintage barbershop stations, but were custom-built in Brooklyn, using reclaimed wood from a 200-year-old barn in Sawkill, NY. The intention was to give the shop a Scandinavian ‘ski lodge’ look while still adhering to our ‘Made in New York’ ethos,” says Elliot.
Services offered range from $20 for a beard trim to $90 for a haircut and shave.
photography: Courtesy of Freemans Sporting Club Barbershop; Courtesy of Made Man Barbershop; Courtesy of Fellow Barber; Courtesy of Harry’s Corner Shop