When I visited Village Barber Shop, Avi Jacobov was giving a trim to a gentleman who lives in the East Village. The customer shared that he makes the trek to Chelsea whenever he needs his hair done because he used to live in the area and he now cannot think of anyone cutting his hair besides Avi. It is not surprising that he should choose to stick with Avi, given the barber’s extensive experience and cheery disposition.
Avi got his start as a very young boy living in Tajikistan, Russia, and Poland, learning at his father’s elbow. He quipped, “My father said, ‘Stay close to me, watch what I do’ – but I wanted to play soccer!” By age eleven, he was cutting hair in his father’s shop by standing on a chair, because he was too short. He became a familiar face to the customers in the salon. Avi pointed to a picture of his father’s large barbershop in Russia, where thirty-five employees worked. When he was seventeen years old, his father entered him into a competition, where he cut hair while thousands of people watched.
Avi moved to New York because he wanted to “make the American dream.” He started working first in Astoria, then on 14th Street, and then finally in Chelsea, always in someone else’s salon. Finally, he decided, “I don’t want to deal with the bosses anymore,” and opened his own small place in Chelsea in 2015. Even by New York standards, “small” does not quite cut it – the Village Barber Shop is certainly one of the tiniest places on a side street, seeming more like an alcove than an actual store. But Avi is confident that one day he will own a place with thirty-plus barbers like his father. Until then, he has decided to start small and gain a reputation for haircutting in Chelsea, a place that he describes as a “good neighborhood with good clientele – and a lot of men.”
In addition to being unique due to its small size, Village Barber Shop stands out because of its prices. Avi gives haircuts for only $19. At that price, he met many skeptics. Passersby assumed that he was not a good barber, since his prices were so cheap. Avi responded by saying, “If you don’t like it, don’t pay.” People did pay, and not just for a good haircut, but for Avi's warm personality. As he describes it, “Sometimes people have a bad day, and I make it better. I talk to them.” This was surely the case for the man getting his haircut in front of me. He spoke up from the chair: “Avi dragged me in one day off the street. Ever since then, I was hooked!”
