When co-owners Gabe Romero and Nick DeBaca remodeled the interior of their new barbershop, they mixed the contemporary with the old-fashioned.
The barber chairs, wood floor and baseball posters are reminiscent of the past. The big-screen television set, computerized cash register, haircuts and the owners are solidly in the present.
London Town Barber Shop, in a shopping mall on the northeast corner of West Ina and North Shannon roads, opened April 1. Romero, 32, and DeBaca, 23, met while working together at a different barbershop for about 18 months.
"I was thinking about opening a shop and so was Nick," Romero said. "We put our heads together and it's been going great ever since."
On a recent Friday afternoon, DeBaca used scissors and a trimmer to transform Raymond Ortega's hair into a razor fade cut. DeBaca explained that this type of cut takes longer than traditional men's haircuts. As DeBaca carefully snipped and trimmed, the complicated cut took shape: A gradual fade from hair on top of the head to skin at the bottom.
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Ortega, 23, lives near Green Valley and makes the drive so his longtime buddy DeBaca can cut his hair.
"The environment is nice," said Ortega. "They're quick. It's a cool place."
Both men have taken up the scissors to become the next generation of haircutters in their respective families.
"My mom was a licensed cosmetologist so I kind of grew up watching her," said DeBaca. "I was one of those kids who did all the other neighborhood kids' haircuts."
And Romero?
"My grandpa was a barber and I was raised in the barbershop," he said.
The suite was a shell with plumbing for the sinks when the business partners signed the lease. They remodeled the space themselves because they didn't have the money to hire anyone to do the work.
The task proved challenging — "especially for two barbers. We're not plumbers," DeBaca said. "Gabe and I did the floors, the paint and the bathrooms."
Romero and DeBaca hired four barbers: Frankie Valles, Kurt Wirth, Henry Rodriquez and James Leitschuh. All six of them worked together at another barbershop.
Valles brushed cut hair from the smock of another Friday-afternoon customer.
"Everybody is laughing and joking," said Josiah Thomas, 21. "It's real nice."
The shop is definitely a man's place. When couples come in for haircuts, "We send the wife next door to KC's Hair & More," Romero said.
"I was thinking about opening a shop and so was Nick. We put our heads together and it's been going great ever since."
Gabe Romero, co-owner of London Town Barber Shop