This week photographer Sarah Blais snipped some shots of Toronto’s local Barbers, and asked them about what they’re sporting behind the chairs on the daily.
Jon Roth of Crows Nest in Kensington Market has been at it for around 5 years now. Check out his Toronto Standard profile. His typical day at the barber shop consists of white Dickies work shirts with the logo patch ironed on, and Levi’s 501s or Dickies 874’s in various colours on the bottom. The work shirt is worn by all the barbers at the shop and comes from G & P Workwear around the corner from Crows Nest.
Jon shops Uncle Otis, Flashback 1 & 2, King of Kensington, Courage My Love, The Drake General Store, and G&P for his non-uniform items. In high school? Jon would have been caught wearing either full camo — or punk attire… nice.
The next stop was in the east end at a place called Little London where, London born Nigel, trims and perfects an array of local guys’ hair. Nigel has been at it for 17-years now. He trained in England and moved to Canada to open up his own shop — success!
When Nigel is behind the chair, he keeps it simple with the Black dress shirts that have his logo on them, blue jeans (Calvin Klein that day), and black comfortable shoes. Classic.
Across from the Eaton Centre (between Queen & Dundas), Sarah met with Lowell Stephens, a 30-something-year-old Barber and co-owner of Onyx Barbers. Lowell’s daily uniform is comfortable shoes, usually jeans, their Barber jacket, and an Onyx Barber staff tee. They recently got New Era Oynx Barber exclusive hats for the staff, and sell them at the shop for their clients. Their barber jackets are also exclusive, as Lowell had them made specifically for the shop. It’s a slippery rayon material to combat loose hairs getting stuck to their shirts.
Lowell said the Mohawk has still been one of the most popular cuts in the shop — but the astroboy kind, not traditional punk rock. Apparently Lennox Lewis (world heavyweight champion) came in once to get a cut from Lowell — and Lowell said afterwards he was giving him a daps and his fist was double the size of Lowell’s fist! Massive…a true form of pressure cutting.
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Sarah Blais shoots Toronto Standard’s Uniform Project. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahblais_.
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