Hardcore and the Barbershop pt.1

So I am going to start tracking down barbershop/salons that are owned by dudes that came out of the hardcore scene. We already know of plenty tattoo parlors tied to hardcore, Now it is our turn as barbers to represent the our roots!!

    So recently I got a message from a very good friend of mine up in Portland,Oregon and the only reason he was getting  ahold of me this time around was to tell me about OAK BARBERSHOP there in Portland and to tell me who owns it. The shop is owned by Augustus Bowman who was in the band DESPERATE MEASURES (Youngblood Records). He played in DM for about a year and moved to Portland about 4 1/2 ago after working in a tattoo parlor in Maryland.

In 2008 Augustus decided to go to barber college and the only thing he had to say to me was " my only regret was not going sooner. I love what I do, I love my clients, and I love the life I'm slowly carving out for myself. It was a lot of work to get to the point where I was ready to open OAK, and it was a lot of work to physically build the shop, but it's finished and now every day I feel lucky that I get to go somewhere I built and do something I love"

I asked Augusts about the barber culture there in Portland,Oregon he said that it is kind of wierd since alot of the older guy are not the most "talkative" (this is something I have noticed since even I became a barber).  I'm pretty friendly with a few other barbers in town, but I think that comes down to the fact that I don't consider other barbers who work in actual barbershops competition. Not in an ego sense, but in a "there's half a million plus people in Portland" kinda way. Anyone who does good haircuts and respects barbering isn't my competition, cause they want the same thing out of their craft that I do, and the more good barbers, the more the public understands what we do is a practiced craft, and the 8 dollar chop shops and the great clips are the who all of our competition is, as it reduces what we do to a walmart mentality

If you are in the Portland area get in to see Augustus Bowman over at his shop OAK Barbershop, follow them on twitter @OAKBarbershop or look them up on Facebook.

Unused Rev labels that are going to be framed and hung in OAK BARBERSHOP