Quote:
Upscale men's barbershops a cut above $10 clips
Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
May. 22, 2006 12:00 AM
In an era when unisex hair salons are on every corner, barber Arthur Mirzakan thinks men in Scottsdale are ready for something a cut above the 10-minute, $10 clips.
Earlier this month, Mirzakan, 24, and his father Sam, 44, opened Exclusively Men's Barber & Spa in the Promenade of Scottsdale shopping center. Their upscale, four-chair barbershop, with dark wood and flat-screen TVs, is a modern version of the type of shop once found in classic downtown hotels of a certain era.
Here they offer haircuts, straight-razor shaves, facials, manicures, shoeshines and just about anything else a well-groomed, well-heeled man could want.
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But are men ready for the indulgent spa care?
"Absolutely," customer Anthony Hesano said of the Mirzakans. "Guys can get pampered and still feel manly."
A few neighborhood barbershops have managed to hang on in parts of Scottsdale, but Exclusively Men's shop has stepped into a higher-rent district hoping to cater to men willing to spend more to get more.
"I'm willing to pay a few dollars more," said Hesano, 30, a Phoenix cellphone store owner.
He followed Sam across town to his new shop to keep his smooth scalp "high and tight."
Another of Sam's customers, Alex Best, said he enjoys the pampering.
"I like the extra amenities," said Best, 36, a commercial photographer who drives in from Litchfield Park. "Sam gives you the shoulder rub and the hot-towel treatment, which enhances the experience."
Haircuts at Exclusively Men's are $22 but the Mirzakans don't stop there. They can give you the royal treatment for $70, which includes a shampoo and haircut, a hot-towel shave with a straight razor, facial treatment and massage, plus a shoeshine.
Exclusively Men's is following the success blazed by Jim Valenzuela with V's Barbershop, a string of five Valley shops that opened in 1999. That includes V's shops at Kierland Commons, Desert Ridge, Arcadia, Peoria and downtown Phoenix.
Sam worked at V's Barbershop in Peoria before opening Exclusively Men's in Scottsdale.
Valenzuela, 44, said V's has succeeded because men got tired of the other options in the marketplace.
"We caught a wave of awareness of men's grooming" that men's magazines were writing about, Valenzuela said, adding that his shops did more than 10,000 shaves last year.
Nationally, barbers are making a comeback. More shops are popping up, including franchises like the Texas-based Roosters Men's Grooming Centers.
There are about 235,000 licensed U.S. barbers this year, up from a low of 190,000 in the late 1980s, said Charles Kirkpatrick, director of the Arkansas-based National Association of Barber Boards.
Barbering is buzzing at a healthy clip now because of shorter hairstyles, he said.