Behind the Chair: Meet Elliott, Our Master Barber

I started cutting hair at 14, in my uncle's shop in Astoria. He'd let me practice on my cousins on Saturdays. The first ten haircuts I gave were genuinely bad. I have one cousin who still won't let me near him with clippers, and honestly that's fair.

I spent my early twenties working at a busy shop in Soho. Long days, demanding clients, packed appointment books. I learned more about pace and consistency there than anywhere else. When you have 25 minutes between bookings and a regular in the chair, you don't get to find your rhythm, you bring it.

Opening Oakline

By 2016 I'd saved enough to walk away. I wanted a shop that was mine, with chairs I could pick, music I could play, and a clientele that came in for the work, not the location's marketing budget. We found the unit on MacDougal Street and never looked back.

The first six months were rough. I cut alone, took every walk-in, lost money on rent. Then a regular started writing about us online, the queue started backing up, and I knew it was working.

Why I still cut

I could hire out and just run the shop. I tried that for one summer. Hated it. Cutting hair is the part I love: the consultation, the conversation, the moment someone looks in the mirror and the cut is exactly what they didn't know they wanted.