‘An act of love’: Barbershop started by Black St. Olaf students finds permanent home

There was a buzz in the air at St. Olaf College on Friday but it wasn’t just students happy for the weekend, it was also the sound of hair clippers turning on as students and staff celebrated the grand opening of the school’s newest permanent barbershop.

The black and gold shop on the second floor of Buntrock Commons is dedicated to Bill Green, the longtime head of multicultural affairs who spent 25 years bringing barbers to campus to cut Black students’ hair.

Inspired by Green’s work, The Shop 1500 represents the next stage of a pop-up barbershop started in 2021 by former students Aidan Lloyd and Giovanni Green.

Lloyd and Green helped establish the pop-up barber shop after struggling to find a barber who knew how to style and cut Black hair in Northfield, a small college town about 40 miles south of the Twin Cities.

The pop-up shop was even featured in the CBS documentary “CROWN” that discussed Black hair through a sports lens.

“Dignity comes in the physical form. This space accomplishes what the pop-up barbershop never could,” Lloyd said.

Director Sarah Kazadi-Ndoye was at St. Olaf on Friday to witness the grand opening of the shop featured in her Emmy-nominated documentary. She described the creation of the shop as an “act of love.”

“When I reached out to the St. Olaf football team members who were somehow, some way, running a bootleg pop-up barbershop on campus, I felt like it would be the perfect addition to a documentary about hair and sports,” Kazadi-Ndoye said.

Since Lloyd and Green graduated, the barbershop has been entrusted to student shop managers Jerome Covington and Mariam Elkemary.

Covington said it was a “crazy” feeling to sit in the actual shop after seeing conceptual renderings months earlier. He said he’s heard students talk about the shop now that the window boards have been taken down and people can peek inside as they walk by.

According to him, BIPOC students on campus will now have a welcoming space to congregate.

“Historically, barbershops have always been a cornerstone of Black culture and culture throughout different communities of color,” Covington said. “I think beyond haircuts and hair care services, this space is going to really be a communal space for students on campus, especially, you know, we’re in Northfield, Minnesota, which is a pretty rural town, mostly white town.”

During the pop-up stage the barbershop was only in service every other Monday, Elkemary said.

The barbers would set up shop in front of the stage of an empty auditorium. LED light stands helped barbers see and their equipment was placed on folding tables.

Now with the permanent location, Elkemary said more services will be available.

“We also have collaborated with student braiders and we have four students as of right now,” Elkemary said. “And we will also be collaborating with a curly hair stylist who will be offering services to those with longer hair or curly hair.”

Her introduction to the barbershop came after meeting Lloyd and Green during an entrepreneur pitch competition on campus. Elkemary’s pitch was about a product for curly hair.

She said her favorite addition to the new shop has been a vending machine of hair products.

“I thought that would be a convenient option for students to buy products that are specialized for their hair, without having to buy them from somewhere else or wait for them to get shipped online. You could just come to the barbershop and buy it from the vending machine,” she said.

The shop will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Monday during the fall and spring semester, Covington said.

The haircuts in the past were paid for half by a school fund and the other by the students but now it’ll be fully covered by the students.

Elkemary said the barbers will still be offering haircuts at a discounted rate of $40 and the shop will try to offer vouchers in the future as a giveaway.

Both managers said students, like most people, can be picky about who touches their hair so it was important to them to offer professionals they could see every time they came back.

“I would definitely say, all my friends that have gone there, they’re definitely happy with the results. And it’s always nice to see,” Elkemary said.

The barbers working at the shop will be the same ones who participated in the pop-up. Barbers from Trendz Barbershop in Apple Valley will continue to make the 45-minute drive down to Northfield to cut hair, according to Covington.

“They cut several players of the Vikings on a weekly basis.” Covington said. “So like, they’re good, if they’re good enough for the Vikings, they’re good enough for us.”

The barbershop had a soft opening on Sept. 16 and has been open every Monday since. Covington said before the opening he, like many of his friends, would only get a haircut during school breaks, but now things are different.

He was one of the first students to sit down in a chair at the new shop and get a haircut. He got a taper-fade, a cut that left the hair on the top of his head longer but faded the sides short.

“Feels great. I feel fresh. It’s nice. There’s not really a comparable feeling to having a new cut,” Covington said.

Friday after the grand opening ceremony Yolanda Pauly was the first person in a chair at the shop. The student and Student Government Association vice president sat down to get her hair braided.

“It feels good. It was exciting. I feel like we’re entering a new time at St. Olaf, where Black students have space to exist and to express themselves,” Pauly said.

She said getting her hair braided was an important part of her embracing her Afro-Latina identity and a confidence boost while walking around campus.

“I’m gonna be feeling fire and I love when my hair is braided, and I just feel so cool,” Pauly said. “I feel so beautiful.”

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