Anna –
The descriptions in this piece are exceptional. Good job capturing the detail! The opening paragraph is very strong and really caught my attention from the beginning. I think you are right about being able to capture the general physical description of the building along with the atmosphere. However, like you said yourself, the story is unfinished and after reading what you have so far I was left wondering about the relationships between the artists. That notion of comraderie you briefly mention seems like it could be a really strong point of departure for this story. I think it would be cool if you can capture the shared struggles and successes of the people who share a common space and common lifestyle/passion/hobby/interest, etc.
Jessica –
This is a really well written reporting piece. I’m with Anna on this one and wondering where the “narrative” is in this article. Aside from that, I think you have really good information logically and sufficiently located throughout the piece. I think the piece was trying to be about Mr. Streeter’s passion to get his students to college, but the article conveys more his professionalism rather than his passion.
Myles –
Fantastic imagery! Great work truly capturing the feel for the place. I really liked what you chose to describe and I think it works well with the piece. I think you should talk more to Curt and get his description of what the place used to look like so you can have that contrast in your piece. I think that will really add to the article. Keep up the good work.
Claire –
I liked your topic considering it’s relevance. I think you should maybe take yourself out of the piece and focus more on the smokers and get more details about them and the places you visited. Starting and ending the article with Fourth Coast gives the piece a good flow and a nice structure.
Joel –
Awesome quotes! Alex really makes this piece fascinating. However, I’m left wondering more about the other band members and I guess the general theme of the article. If you could get more interviews with the other members, fans, etc that would help a lot. Also, I think descriptive scenes and physical descriptions would really add to this. It’d be cool to capture some of the relationship dynamics between the members and also the dynamics between the audience and the band.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Revised 2
Shear Hospitality
Continuing south on Westnedge, past the student-magnet Crow’s Nest Restaurant, Martini’s, the serene Westnedge Park and the Knight’s Inn, one finds the Fresh ‘N Clean Barbershop nestled in the heart of the historic Vine Neighborhood commercial district.
Outside, a red Piston’s jacket and two Allen Iverson jerseys hang from a tree over a bicycle and Piston’s garbage can, peculiar yet distinct markers of the shop. To the right of the door, a frayed American flag sways in the wind, often its threads getting caught in the lone shrub underneath.
Immediately upon entering the shop, the smell of Barbicide awakens the olfactory senses. Pictures of Tiger Woods, Lebron James, President Obama, Michael Jackson, and Mohammed Ali, snipped from magazines, adorn the walls of the bigger of two rooms used as the barbershop itself; the smaller room is used for the display and sale of urban-wear. The white with green trim barber stations, all hand-made by the barbers themselves, house the tools of the trade: shears, clippers, Clubman Talc, a stinging after-shave not meant for the light-hearted, hand-held mirrors, hair gel, brushes and combs.
At one of the five, alternating in style barber chairs, shop founder Eddie Anderson is busy meticulously perfecting the fade of a young black male. A clipper in hand, Eddie, hunching over from his six-foot stature and peering through his gold-colored frame glasses, examines and re-examines his work. The hallmark of a fade is the appearance of a smooth transitional change in hair length from bald to a few millimeters and Eddie carefully ensures no single hair disrupts the illusion. The commitment to his craft is evident in the time he takes with each cut, often taking over an hour with each client.
Usually one of the bigger men in the shop at any given time, Eddie commands a presence in the shop well beyond his twenty-six years of age. Dressing in accordance with the shop’s name, Eddie often sports pressed slacks, dress shoes, and an un-tucked polo. He maintains his hairstyle buzzed on top, with a fade on the sides; his beard a permanent five o’clock shadow. When he speaks, glasses sitting below his line of sight, he relaxingly gazes at you and talks in a mild manner.
It is impressive to see a twenty-six year old at the helm of a thriving, old-school barbershop employing a total of six other barbers and stylists mainly catering to the local African American youth population of the Vine neighborhood. It is even more impressive to learn that Eddie founded his business when he was just eighteen years old.
Graduating from Kalamazoo Central High School at the age of sixteen, Eddie enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley Community College shortly before his seventeenth birthday but soon dropped out during winter semester. Smiling, Eddie recalls his decision to drop out, “I just got bored with it, I liked working a lot more.”
Indeed, Eddie says he has always had a knack for business and a passion for work. Starting at the age of ten he began to develop a keen eye for moneymaking. “One day, when I was ten, I got the idea to go mow my neighbors’ lawns. So, I went and mowed all of them, did a damn good job too, and then told all my neighbors they owed me ten dollars”, Eddie stops and bursts into a contagious laughter, “I guess I should have asked first. But my neighbors all said ‘Eddie, you did a pretty good job, how ‘bout you come back in a few weeks, and tell you what, you do the same good work and we’ll pay you those ten dollars.’”
From there, he expanded his lawn-mowing business to include most of the neighborhood and never missed an opportunity to make money, working all through his high school years. It was only natural then, that when the West Michigan College of Barbering and Beauty opened in Kalamazoo, Eddie saw an opportunity, “At the time, there were only two or three barbershops and they mostly catered to the older crowd. Not that they were bad or anything, just if you were younger and wanted a fade, it wasn’t going to be as clean. So, I wanted a place that had that younger feel to it.”
After working a short time at the Playhouse barbershop on the East side of town, it became apparent to Eddie that he needed his own spot. Luckily, the opportunity to open his own business practically fell in his lap, or rather, sat down at his station one day at work. Devin, a Jamaican man who frequented Playhouse and who was impressed with Eddie’s work, suggested they should open a shop together. Devin would sell clothes and Eddie would run the barbershop. “He came in one day, suggested it, I said ‘sure’ and the next day he called me and told me he had found a location. So we opened up the shop, right across the street from this one, in November of 2002,” says Eddie as he points across the street to the corner building.
Soon after however, Devin disappeared and never showed up again. The landlord came around and was surprised to see the eighteen year old hard at work. Apparently, the landlord was unaware that Eddie was a tenant; Devin had never given him the lease with Eddie’s signature. Mimicking the landlord, Eddie describes the landlord’s reaction to finding him running the shop by himself, “Who are you? Where is Devin?” “I told him who I was, and after the confusion was settled he told me ‘Look, I like your work ethic, I think we can work something out. Find a co-signer and you can stay here.’”
The business-savvy Eddie immediately solved the problem: his mom co-signed the lease and he continued to run the shop, establishing it as one of the most respectable businesses in town. Eddie has continued to grow and improve upon his business, recently moving across the street, to Fresh ‘N Clean’s current location of 1305 S. Westnedge Avenue.
The new building is bigger, in better conditions, and most importantly, according to Eddie, “this new building has two window fronts, so I can display the clothes on one side without obscuring the view to the barbershop. At the other place, the barbershop was in the back and that took away business.”
Eddie’s ability to perceive factors that affect business, such as the importance of visibility, has enabled him to stay profitable. Along the way, he has learned other lessons crucial to the successful operation of his shop, “When I first started, because I was young, I let a lot of my friends and neighborhood kids hang out in front of the store. I learned quickly that this was a bad idea. Really quick. I realized how unwelcoming a group of teenage kids loitering outside the shop could be for potential customers, so I fixed that up right quick.”
Striving to establish his shop as a welcoming place has been a central business philosophy for Eddie’s barbershop. His desire to provide more than just a haircut is reflected in Fresh ‘N Clean’s slogan, “More than just a fade, we do it all.” Eddie reflects, “Other barbershops are just focused on the haircut and can be really unwelcoming. When I opened up I wanted a place where everyone was welcomed.”
Eddie believes his training at the college of barbering taught him to interact with all types of people, a crucial skill he has applied to accommodating his clientele, which he describes as coming “from all walks of life.” He continues, “You know, hair is hair, I learned that at the college. I learned to deal with everyone, any style of hair, and any race. Other barbershops aren’t as pleasant. I like to think we are the opposite of them.”
He stresses the importance of conversing, “We can deal with anyone. While we cater to that younger crowd, we can have a conversation with a fifty-year-old to eighty-year-old. We respect our elders, it’s really important to us. We try not to curse and keep the conversation clean.” Eddie highlights the fact that his staff is even representative of multiple generations, ranging in ages of twenty-five to forty-five.
The welcoming atmosphere of the shop is quickly realized after a few seconds inside. Customers, upon entering the shop, are greeted with a genuine, “How you doing?” – a rare transaction in today’s service industry – and are expected to respond with a more substantiated response than just “good.”
On any given day, the shop teems with lively conversation and storytelling. What Eddie calls “the number one rule” in the Barber’s Handbook – that of never mixing haircuts with politics and religion – is often broken, yet respect for each other is always maintained. “People come here because they are comfortable not only with getting a haircut but also voicing their opinions,” asserts Eddie.
However, conversational topics are not confined to that of politics and religion; subjects of discussion are as varied as the haircuts that are given. Talk of sports, neighborhood happenings, jokes, cars, music, and entertainment all mix with the haircut styles of hi-tops, flattops, afros, high and tights and anything else against the backdrop of Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat” playing through the shop’s speakers.
Reflecting on the talkative atmosphere of the shop, Eddie offers, “It is like we are therapists. People come here to talk to us. Sometimes just to talk to us. We’ve made friends from just all the times we talk to somebody.” It is true; some people do just come by to talk about current times or even personal matters. One man, Gary, rides his bicycle all the way from Portage two or three times a week just to talk to the barbers. Others like Terrell, a fifty-something man with a black surgical boot on his right foot, are an even more frequent haunt of the shop; stopping by almost everyday to give his exaggerated, yet comedic, take on neighborhood happenings.
On this day, Terrell is more excited than usual. Recounting a confrontation he just has had with a younger male fresh out of jail, Terrell proclaims to the shop, “This young cat, all upset, takes of his shirt and starts to go Hulk on me, flexing his chest and showing off his muscles like ‘bing’!” Continuing with his tale, Terrell raises his voice and moves about the shop acting out the scene as he recalls it, “I told him, ‘hey why don’t you come back to my shed I’ve got something for you.”
He mimes the revving of a chainsaw, “I said, ‘here. Let me just fix up the side of your face for you’. That didn’t scare him so I did the only other thing a guy could do when faced with a bigger guy – grab him by the throat and squeeze his esophagus! Brought him down to the ground, kicked him with my bad leg then gave him an old-man slap!” At this point, Eddie interjects jokingly questioning the validity of his story, “Terrell, you sure you got this right? Sure it wasn’t the other way around? Maybe that’s why you have that boot on your leg!” The shop erupts into fits of laughter.
Terrell concedes, “Ok, maybe I didn’t bring out the chainsaw – didn’t have no gas to start it up. But I tell you what, whatever that man had planned for today just went the opposite when he met me. Opposite. Reciprocal.” Though the mood is light, Terrell ends his recount by telling the shop’s patrons, “But for real, I know these guys (the barbers) have my back. Eddie keeps it peaceful, people respect him and they don’t want to get crossed with Fresh ‘N Clean.”
Eddie’s maturation has always been intertwined with the growth of his business. His friendly and genuine demeanor along with his acute business acumen have allowed Fresh ‘N Clean to flourished into what it is today: a place where good haircuts are given but more importantly where good conversations are had and where friendships are made.
As the shop prepares for closing time, “Big E”, one of the other barbers, brings attention to Eddie who is outside, “Man, this place without Eddie…wouldn’t be this place. Just look at him, he’s outside picking up the cigarette butts because it is his pet peeve when people just throw them on the ground, especially right outside his door. He says we won’t get business with all that trash outside. It’s a small detail, but he’s right. Those little things go a long way.”
Continuing south on Westnedge, past the student-magnet Crow’s Nest Restaurant, Martini’s, the serene Westnedge Park and the Knight’s Inn, one finds the Fresh ‘N Clean Barbershop nestled in the heart of the historic Vine Neighborhood commercial district.
Outside, a red Piston’s jacket and two Allen Iverson jerseys hang from a tree over a bicycle and Piston’s garbage can, peculiar yet distinct markers of the shop. To the right of the door, a frayed American flag sways in the wind, often its threads getting caught in the lone shrub underneath.
Immediately upon entering the shop, the smell of Barbicide awakens the olfactory senses. Pictures of Tiger Woods, Lebron James, President Obama, Michael Jackson, and Mohammed Ali, snipped from magazines, adorn the walls of the bigger of two rooms used as the barbershop itself; the smaller room is used for the display and sale of urban-wear. The white with green trim barber stations, all hand-made by the barbers themselves, house the tools of the trade: shears, clippers, Clubman Talc, a stinging after-shave not meant for the light-hearted, hand-held mirrors, hair gel, brushes and combs.
At one of the five, alternating in style barber chairs, shop founder Eddie Anderson is busy meticulously perfecting the fade of a young black male. A clipper in hand, Eddie, hunching over from his six-foot stature and peering through his gold-colored frame glasses, examines and re-examines his work. The hallmark of a fade is the appearance of a smooth transitional change in hair length from bald to a few millimeters and Eddie carefully ensures no single hair disrupts the illusion. The commitment to his craft is evident in the time he takes with each cut, often taking over an hour with each client.
Usually one of the bigger men in the shop at any given time, Eddie commands a presence in the shop well beyond his twenty-six years of age. Dressing in accordance with the shop’s name, Eddie often sports pressed slacks, dress shoes, and an un-tucked polo. He maintains his hairstyle buzzed on top, with a fade on the sides; his beard a permanent five o’clock shadow. When he speaks, glasses sitting below his line of sight, he relaxingly gazes at you and talks in a mild manner.
It is impressive to see a twenty-six year old at the helm of a thriving, old-school barbershop employing a total of six other barbers and stylists mainly catering to the local African American youth population of the Vine neighborhood. It is even more impressive to learn that Eddie founded his business when he was just eighteen years old.
Graduating from Kalamazoo Central High School at the age of sixteen, Eddie enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley Community College shortly before his seventeenth birthday but soon dropped out during winter semester. Smiling, Eddie recalls his decision to drop out, “I just got bored with it, I liked working a lot more.”
Indeed, Eddie says he has always had a knack for business and a passion for work. Starting at the age of ten he began to develop a keen eye for moneymaking. “One day, when I was ten, I got the idea to go mow my neighbors’ lawns. So, I went and mowed all of them, did a damn good job too, and then told all my neighbors they owed me ten dollars”, Eddie stops and bursts into a contagious laughter, “I guess I should have asked first. But my neighbors all said ‘Eddie, you did a pretty good job, how ‘bout you come back in a few weeks, and tell you what, you do the same good work and we’ll pay you those ten dollars.’”
From there, he expanded his lawn-mowing business to include most of the neighborhood and never missed an opportunity to make money, working all through his high school years. It was only natural then, that when the West Michigan College of Barbering and Beauty opened in Kalamazoo, Eddie saw an opportunity, “At the time, there were only two or three barbershops and they mostly catered to the older crowd. Not that they were bad or anything, just if you were younger and wanted a fade, it wasn’t going to be as clean. So, I wanted a place that had that younger feel to it.”
After working a short time at the Playhouse barbershop on the East side of town, it became apparent to Eddie that he needed his own spot. Luckily, the opportunity to open his own business practically fell in his lap, or rather, sat down at his station one day at work. Devin, a Jamaican man who frequented Playhouse and who was impressed with Eddie’s work, suggested they should open a shop together. Devin would sell clothes and Eddie would run the barbershop. “He came in one day, suggested it, I said ‘sure’ and the next day he called me and told me he had found a location. So we opened up the shop, right across the street from this one, in November of 2002,” says Eddie as he points across the street to the corner building.
Soon after however, Devin disappeared and never showed up again. The landlord came around and was surprised to see the eighteen year old hard at work. Apparently, the landlord was unaware that Eddie was a tenant; Devin had never given him the lease with Eddie’s signature. Mimicking the landlord, Eddie describes the landlord’s reaction to finding him running the shop by himself, “Who are you? Where is Devin?” “I told him who I was, and after the confusion was settled he told me ‘Look, I like your work ethic, I think we can work something out. Find a co-signer and you can stay here.’”
The business-savvy Eddie immediately solved the problem: his mom co-signed the lease and he continued to run the shop, establishing it as one of the most respectable businesses in town. Eddie has continued to grow and improve upon his business, recently moving across the street, to Fresh ‘N Clean’s current location of 1305 S. Westnedge Avenue.
The new building is bigger, in better conditions, and most importantly, according to Eddie, “this new building has two window fronts, so I can display the clothes on one side without obscuring the view to the barbershop. At the other place, the barbershop was in the back and that took away business.”
Eddie’s ability to perceive factors that affect business, such as the importance of visibility, has enabled him to stay profitable. Along the way, he has learned other lessons crucial to the successful operation of his shop, “When I first started, because I was young, I let a lot of my friends and neighborhood kids hang out in front of the store. I learned quickly that this was a bad idea. Really quick. I realized how unwelcoming a group of teenage kids loitering outside the shop could be for potential customers, so I fixed that up right quick.”
Striving to establish his shop as a welcoming place has been a central business philosophy for Eddie’s barbershop. His desire to provide more than just a haircut is reflected in Fresh ‘N Clean’s slogan, “More than just a fade, we do it all.” Eddie reflects, “Other barbershops are just focused on the haircut and can be really unwelcoming. When I opened up I wanted a place where everyone was welcomed.”
Eddie believes his training at the college of barbering taught him to interact with all types of people, a crucial skill he has applied to accommodating his clientele, which he describes as coming “from all walks of life.” He continues, “You know, hair is hair, I learned that at the college. I learned to deal with everyone, any style of hair, and any race. Other barbershops aren’t as pleasant. I like to think we are the opposite of them.”
He stresses the importance of conversing, “We can deal with anyone. While we cater to that younger crowd, we can have a conversation with a fifty-year-old to eighty-year-old. We respect our elders, it’s really important to us. We try not to curse and keep the conversation clean.” Eddie highlights the fact that his staff is even representative of multiple generations, ranging in ages of twenty-five to forty-five.
The welcoming atmosphere of the shop is quickly realized after a few seconds inside. Customers, upon entering the shop, are greeted with a genuine, “How you doing?” – a rare transaction in today’s service industry – and are expected to respond with a more substantiated response than just “good.”
On any given day, the shop teems with lively conversation and storytelling. What Eddie calls “the number one rule” in the Barber’s Handbook – that of never mixing haircuts with politics and religion – is often broken, yet respect for each other is always maintained. “People come here because they are comfortable not only with getting a haircut but also voicing their opinions,” asserts Eddie.
However, conversational topics are not confined to that of politics and religion; subjects of discussion are as varied as the haircuts that are given. Talk of sports, neighborhood happenings, jokes, cars, music, and entertainment all mix with the haircut styles of hi-tops, flattops, afros, high and tights and anything else against the backdrop of Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat” playing through the shop’s speakers.
Reflecting on the talkative atmosphere of the shop, Eddie offers, “It is like we are therapists. People come here to talk to us. Sometimes just to talk to us. We’ve made friends from just all the times we talk to somebody.” It is true; some people do just come by to talk about current times or even personal matters. One man, Gary, rides his bicycle all the way from Portage two or three times a week just to talk to the barbers. Others like Terrell, a fifty-something man with a black surgical boot on his right foot, are an even more frequent haunt of the shop; stopping by almost everyday to give his exaggerated, yet comedic, take on neighborhood happenings.
On this day, Terrell is more excited than usual. Recounting a confrontation he just has had with a younger male fresh out of jail, Terrell proclaims to the shop, “This young cat, all upset, takes of his shirt and starts to go Hulk on me, flexing his chest and showing off his muscles like ‘bing’!” Continuing with his tale, Terrell raises his voice and moves about the shop acting out the scene as he recalls it, “I told him, ‘hey why don’t you come back to my shed I’ve got something for you.”
He mimes the revving of a chainsaw, “I said, ‘here. Let me just fix up the side of your face for you’. That didn’t scare him so I did the only other thing a guy could do when faced with a bigger guy – grab him by the throat and squeeze his esophagus! Brought him down to the ground, kicked him with my bad leg then gave him an old-man slap!” At this point, Eddie interjects jokingly questioning the validity of his story, “Terrell, you sure you got this right? Sure it wasn’t the other way around? Maybe that’s why you have that boot on your leg!” The shop erupts into fits of laughter.
Terrell concedes, “Ok, maybe I didn’t bring out the chainsaw – didn’t have no gas to start it up. But I tell you what, whatever that man had planned for today just went the opposite when he met me. Opposite. Reciprocal.” Though the mood is light, Terrell ends his recount by telling the shop’s patrons, “But for real, I know these guys (the barbers) have my back. Eddie keeps it peaceful, people respect him and they don’t want to get crossed with Fresh ‘N Clean.”
Eddie’s maturation has always been intertwined with the growth of his business. His friendly and genuine demeanor along with his acute business acumen have allowed Fresh ‘N Clean to flourished into what it is today: a place where good haircuts are given but more importantly where good conversations are had and where friendships are made.
As the shop prepares for closing time, “Big E”, one of the other barbers, brings attention to Eddie who is outside, “Man, this place without Eddie…wouldn’t be this place. Just look at him, he’s outside picking up the cigarette butts because it is his pet peeve when people just throw them on the ground, especially right outside his door. He says we won’t get business with all that trash outside. It’s a small detail, but he’s right. Those little things go a long way.”
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Reading Response for Week 7
For the most part, I really, really liked "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold". I thought the physical descriptions were amazing to say the least. Talese's ability to capture everything really impressed me. The way he presents other details is also really well done. For example, Talese's six paragraph describes the song "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" in such a way that can only be described as pure dominance of his craft. Almost every character's disposition clearly comes through in the writing.
However, while the details were excellent, I had a hard time understanding Talese's presence throughout the piece. In some instances he includes himself, in others he just tells the story without much attribution. For example, at his daughter's birthday, was Talese there? Much of these anecdotes come off as being purely hear-say, and if they aren't, then stalker-ish. I think if the details were sprinkled with direct quotes from sources other than Sinatra this would be a better piece.
However, while the details were excellent, I had a hard time understanding Talese's presence throughout the piece. In some instances he includes himself, in others he just tells the story without much attribution. For example, at his daughter's birthday, was Talese there? Much of these anecdotes come off as being purely hear-say, and if they aren't, then stalker-ish. I think if the details were sprinkled with direct quotes from sources other than Sinatra this would be a better piece.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Assignment 2
Continuing south on Westnedge, past the student-magnet Crow’s Nest Restaurant, Martini’s, the serene Westnedge Park and the Knight’s Inn, one finds the Fresh ‘N Clean Barbershop nestled in the heart of the historic Vine Neighborhood commercial district.
Outside, a red Piston’s jacket and two Allen Iverson jerseys hang from a tree over a bicycle and Piston’s garbage can, peculiar yet distinct markers of the shop. To the right of the door, a frayed American flag sways in the wind, often its threads getting caught in the lone shrub underneath.
Immediately upon entering the shop, the smell of Barbicide awakens the olfactory senses. Pictures of Tiger Woods, Lebron James, President Obama, Michael Jackson, and Mohammed Ali, snipped from magazines, adorn the walls of the bigger of two rooms used as the barbershop itself; the smaller room is used for the display and sale of urban-wear. The white with green trim barber stations, all hand-made by the barbers themselves, house the tools of the trade: shears, clippers, Clubman Talc, a stinging after-shave not meant for the light-hearted, hand-held mirrors, hair gel, brushes and combs.
At one of the five, alternating in style, barber chairs, shop founder Eddie Anderson is busy meticulously perfecting the fade of a young black male. A clipper in hand, Eddie, hunching over from his six-foot stature and peering through his gold-colored frame glasses, examines and re-examines his work. The hallmark of a fade is the appearance of a smooth transitional change in hair length from bald to a few millimeters and Eddie carefully ensures no single hair disrupts the illusion. The commitment to his craft is evident in the time he takes with each cut, often taking over an hour with each client.
Usually one of the bigger men in the shop at any given time, Eddie commands a presence in the shop well beyond his twenty-six years of age. Dressing in accordance with the shop’s name, Eddie often sports pressed slacks, dress shoes, and an un-tucked polo. He maintains his hairstyle buzzed on top, with a fade on the sides; his beard a permanent five o’clock shadow. When he speaks, glasses sitting below his line of sight, he relaxingly gazes at you and talks in a mild manner.
It is impressive to see a twenty-six year old at the helm of a thriving, mainly catering to the local African American youth population of the Vine neighborhood, old-school barbershop employing a total of six other barbers and stylists. It is even more impressive to learn that Eddie founded his business when he was just eighteen years old.
Graduating from Kalamazoo Central High School at the age of sixteen, Eddie enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley Community College shortly before his seventeenth birthday but soon dropped out during winter semester. Smiling, Eddie recalls his decision to drop out, “I just got bored with it, I liked working a lot more.”
Indeed, Eddie says he has always had a knack for business and a passion for work. Starting at the age of ten he began to develop a keen eye for moneymaking. “One day, when I was ten, I got the idea to go mow my neighbors’ lawns. So, I went and mowed all of them, did a damn good job too, and then told all my neighbors they owed me ten dollars”, Eddie stops and busts into a contagious laughter, “I guess I should have asked first. But my neighbors all said ‘Eddie, you did a pretty good job, how ‘bout you come back in a few weeks, and tell you what, you do the same good work and we’ll pay you those ten dollars.’”
From there, he expanded his lawn-mowing business to include most of the neighborhood and never missed an opportunity to make money, working all through his high school years. It was only natural then, that when the West Michigan College of Barbering and Beauty opened in Kalamazoo, Eddie saw an opportunity, “At the time, there were only two or three barbershops and they mostly catered to the older crowd. Not that they were bad or anything, just if you were younger and wanted a fade, it wasn’t going to be as clean. So, I wanted a place that had that younger feel to it.”
After working a short time at the Playhouse barbershop on the East side of town, it became apparent to Eddie that he needed his own spot. Luckily, the opportunity to open his own business practically fell in his lap, or rather, sat down at his station one day at work. Devin, a Jamaican man who frequented Playhouse and who was impressed with Eddie’s work, suggested they should open a shop together. Devin would sell clothes and Eddie would run the barbershop. “He came in one day, suggested it, I said ‘sure’ and the next day he called me and told me he had found a location. So we opened up the shop, right across the street from this one, in November of 2002,” says Eddie as he points across the street to the corner building.
Soon after however, Devin disappeared and never showed up again. The landlord came around and was surprised to see the eighteen year old hard at work. Apparently, the landlord was unaware that Eddie was a tenant; Devin had never given him the lease with Eddie’s signature. Mimicking the landlord, Eddie describes the landlord’s reaction to finding him running the shop by himself, “Who are you? Where is Devin?” “I told him who I was, and after the confusion was settled he told me ‘Look, I like your work ethic, I think we can work something out. Find a co-signer and you can stay here.’”
The business-savvy Eddie immediately solved the problem: his mom co-signed the lease and he continued to run the shop, establishing it as one of the most respectable businesses in town. Eddie has continued to grow and improve upon his business, recently moving across the street, to Fresh ‘N Clean’s current location of 1305 S. Westnedge Avenue.
The new building is bigger, in better conditions, and most importantly, according to Eddie, “this new building has two window fronts, so I can display the clothes on one side without obscuring the view to the barbershop. At the other place, the barbershop was in the back and that took away business.”
Eddie’s ability to perceive factors that affect business, such as the importance of visibility, has enabled him to stay profitable. Along the way, he has learned other lessons crucial to the successful operation of his shop, “When I first started, because I was young, I let a lot of my friends and neighborhood kids hang out in front of the store. I learned quickly that this was a bad idea. Really quick. I realized how unwelcoming a group of teenage kids loitering outside the shop could be for potential customers, so I fixed that up right quick.”
More Than Just a Fade, They Do it All
Striving to establish his shop as a welcoming place has been a central business philosophy for Eddie’s barbershop. His desire to provide more than just a haircut is reflected in Fresh ‘N Clean’s slogan, “More than just a fade, we do it all.” Eddie reflects, “Other barbershops are just focused on the haircut and can be really unwelcoming. When I opened up I wanted a place where everyone was welcomed.”
Eddie believes his training at the college of barbering taught him to interact with all types of people, a crucial skill he has applied to accommodating his clientele, which he describes as coming “from all walks of life.” He continues, “You know, hair is hair, I learned that at the college. I learned to deal with everyone, any style of hair, and any race. Other barbershops aren’t as pleasant. I like to think we are the opposite of them.”
He stresses the importance of conversing, “We can deal with anyone. While we cater to that younger crowd, we can have a conversation with a fifty-year-old to eighty-year-old. We respect our elders, it’s really important to us. We try not to curse and keep the conversation clean.” Eddie highlights the fact that his staff is even representative of multiple generations, ranging in ages of twenty-five to forty-five.
The welcoming atmosphere of the shop is quickly realized after a few seconds inside. Customers, upon entering the shop, are greeted with a genuine, “How you doing?” – a rare transaction in today’s service industry – and are expected to respond with a more substantiated response than just “good.”
On any given day, the shop teems with lively conversation and storytelling. What Eddie calls “the number one rule” in the Barber’s Handbook – that of never mixing haircuts with politics and religion – is often broken, yet respect for each other is always maintained. “People come here because they are comfortable not only with getting a haircut but also voicing their opinions,” asserts Eddie. However, conversational topics are not confined to that of politics and religion; subjects of discussion are as varied as the haircuts that are given. Talk of sports, neighborhood happenings, jokes, cars, music, and entertainment all mix with the haircut styles of hi-tops, flattops, afros, high and tights and anything else against the backdrop of Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat” playing through the shop’s speakers.
Outside, a red Piston’s jacket and two Allen Iverson jerseys hang from a tree over a bicycle and Piston’s garbage can, peculiar yet distinct markers of the shop. To the right of the door, a frayed American flag sways in the wind, often its threads getting caught in the lone shrub underneath.
Immediately upon entering the shop, the smell of Barbicide awakens the olfactory senses. Pictures of Tiger Woods, Lebron James, President Obama, Michael Jackson, and Mohammed Ali, snipped from magazines, adorn the walls of the bigger of two rooms used as the barbershop itself; the smaller room is used for the display and sale of urban-wear. The white with green trim barber stations, all hand-made by the barbers themselves, house the tools of the trade: shears, clippers, Clubman Talc, a stinging after-shave not meant for the light-hearted, hand-held mirrors, hair gel, brushes and combs.
At one of the five, alternating in style, barber chairs, shop founder Eddie Anderson is busy meticulously perfecting the fade of a young black male. A clipper in hand, Eddie, hunching over from his six-foot stature and peering through his gold-colored frame glasses, examines and re-examines his work. The hallmark of a fade is the appearance of a smooth transitional change in hair length from bald to a few millimeters and Eddie carefully ensures no single hair disrupts the illusion. The commitment to his craft is evident in the time he takes with each cut, often taking over an hour with each client.
Usually one of the bigger men in the shop at any given time, Eddie commands a presence in the shop well beyond his twenty-six years of age. Dressing in accordance with the shop’s name, Eddie often sports pressed slacks, dress shoes, and an un-tucked polo. He maintains his hairstyle buzzed on top, with a fade on the sides; his beard a permanent five o’clock shadow. When he speaks, glasses sitting below his line of sight, he relaxingly gazes at you and talks in a mild manner.
It is impressive to see a twenty-six year old at the helm of a thriving, mainly catering to the local African American youth population of the Vine neighborhood, old-school barbershop employing a total of six other barbers and stylists. It is even more impressive to learn that Eddie founded his business when he was just eighteen years old.
Graduating from Kalamazoo Central High School at the age of sixteen, Eddie enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley Community College shortly before his seventeenth birthday but soon dropped out during winter semester. Smiling, Eddie recalls his decision to drop out, “I just got bored with it, I liked working a lot more.”
Indeed, Eddie says he has always had a knack for business and a passion for work. Starting at the age of ten he began to develop a keen eye for moneymaking. “One day, when I was ten, I got the idea to go mow my neighbors’ lawns. So, I went and mowed all of them, did a damn good job too, and then told all my neighbors they owed me ten dollars”, Eddie stops and busts into a contagious laughter, “I guess I should have asked first. But my neighbors all said ‘Eddie, you did a pretty good job, how ‘bout you come back in a few weeks, and tell you what, you do the same good work and we’ll pay you those ten dollars.’”
From there, he expanded his lawn-mowing business to include most of the neighborhood and never missed an opportunity to make money, working all through his high school years. It was only natural then, that when the West Michigan College of Barbering and Beauty opened in Kalamazoo, Eddie saw an opportunity, “At the time, there were only two or three barbershops and they mostly catered to the older crowd. Not that they were bad or anything, just if you were younger and wanted a fade, it wasn’t going to be as clean. So, I wanted a place that had that younger feel to it.”
After working a short time at the Playhouse barbershop on the East side of town, it became apparent to Eddie that he needed his own spot. Luckily, the opportunity to open his own business practically fell in his lap, or rather, sat down at his station one day at work. Devin, a Jamaican man who frequented Playhouse and who was impressed with Eddie’s work, suggested they should open a shop together. Devin would sell clothes and Eddie would run the barbershop. “He came in one day, suggested it, I said ‘sure’ and the next day he called me and told me he had found a location. So we opened up the shop, right across the street from this one, in November of 2002,” says Eddie as he points across the street to the corner building.
Soon after however, Devin disappeared and never showed up again. The landlord came around and was surprised to see the eighteen year old hard at work. Apparently, the landlord was unaware that Eddie was a tenant; Devin had never given him the lease with Eddie’s signature. Mimicking the landlord, Eddie describes the landlord’s reaction to finding him running the shop by himself, “Who are you? Where is Devin?” “I told him who I was, and after the confusion was settled he told me ‘Look, I like your work ethic, I think we can work something out. Find a co-signer and you can stay here.’”
The business-savvy Eddie immediately solved the problem: his mom co-signed the lease and he continued to run the shop, establishing it as one of the most respectable businesses in town. Eddie has continued to grow and improve upon his business, recently moving across the street, to Fresh ‘N Clean’s current location of 1305 S. Westnedge Avenue.
The new building is bigger, in better conditions, and most importantly, according to Eddie, “this new building has two window fronts, so I can display the clothes on one side without obscuring the view to the barbershop. At the other place, the barbershop was in the back and that took away business.”
Eddie’s ability to perceive factors that affect business, such as the importance of visibility, has enabled him to stay profitable. Along the way, he has learned other lessons crucial to the successful operation of his shop, “When I first started, because I was young, I let a lot of my friends and neighborhood kids hang out in front of the store. I learned quickly that this was a bad idea. Really quick. I realized how unwelcoming a group of teenage kids loitering outside the shop could be for potential customers, so I fixed that up right quick.”
More Than Just a Fade, They Do it All
Striving to establish his shop as a welcoming place has been a central business philosophy for Eddie’s barbershop. His desire to provide more than just a haircut is reflected in Fresh ‘N Clean’s slogan, “More than just a fade, we do it all.” Eddie reflects, “Other barbershops are just focused on the haircut and can be really unwelcoming. When I opened up I wanted a place where everyone was welcomed.”
Eddie believes his training at the college of barbering taught him to interact with all types of people, a crucial skill he has applied to accommodating his clientele, which he describes as coming “from all walks of life.” He continues, “You know, hair is hair, I learned that at the college. I learned to deal with everyone, any style of hair, and any race. Other barbershops aren’t as pleasant. I like to think we are the opposite of them.”
He stresses the importance of conversing, “We can deal with anyone. While we cater to that younger crowd, we can have a conversation with a fifty-year-old to eighty-year-old. We respect our elders, it’s really important to us. We try not to curse and keep the conversation clean.” Eddie highlights the fact that his staff is even representative of multiple generations, ranging in ages of twenty-five to forty-five.
The welcoming atmosphere of the shop is quickly realized after a few seconds inside. Customers, upon entering the shop, are greeted with a genuine, “How you doing?” – a rare transaction in today’s service industry – and are expected to respond with a more substantiated response than just “good.”
On any given day, the shop teems with lively conversation and storytelling. What Eddie calls “the number one rule” in the Barber’s Handbook – that of never mixing haircuts with politics and religion – is often broken, yet respect for each other is always maintained. “People come here because they are comfortable not only with getting a haircut but also voicing their opinions,” asserts Eddie. However, conversational topics are not confined to that of politics and religion; subjects of discussion are as varied as the haircuts that are given. Talk of sports, neighborhood happenings, jokes, cars, music, and entertainment all mix with the haircut styles of hi-tops, flattops, afros, high and tights and anything else against the backdrop of Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat” playing through the shop’s speakers.
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