{"id":8741,"date":"2022-12-06T21:04:19","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=8741"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:59:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:59:31","slug":"haircuts-on-wheels-the-master-klippas-mobile-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2022\/12\/06\/haircuts-on-wheels-the-master-klippas-mobile-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Haircuts on wheels: The Master Klippas mobile experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
To Marcus Hall, the time a client spends in his barber chair is sacred. A haircut is a ritual, a relationship between barber and client. The client must trust the barber. And the barber must transform the client into the best version of himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But Hall, 34, is different from other barbers. His shop is a 30-foot-long RV that makes house calls. You may have seen it around Durham \u2013 red, white, and blue (like a barber pole) with his shop\u2019s name on the back: \u201cNEED MOBILE BARBER? KLIPPAS MOBILE GROOMING.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hall himself keeps his head closely clipped, with more hair on his chin than his scalp. Born and raised in Durham, he talks lovingly about his city and his job. \u201cYou can give back anywhere,\u201d said the 2006 Hillside High School graduate. \u201cBut giving back at home is always better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The RV has the feel of a regular shop, just in tighter quarters. A small TV is often playing TNT dramas, the dialogue lost under the buzzing of Klippa\u2019s clippers. A shelf of hair sprays faces a shelf of books, where the thrillers of Eric Jerome Dickey sandwich Dante Lee\u2019s \u201cBlack Business Secrets.\u201d The couch cushions and wallpaper are red, white, and blue, in keeping with the barber shop pole theme.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The shop is so stuffed with equipment and books that it\u2019s hard to tell where the professional life of Klippas the Barber ends and the personal life of Hall begins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/p>\n Hall decided to go mobile because he thinks customers appreciate the convenience and personal service in the RV.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou get the barbershop to yourself,\u201d he said as he clipped a client’s hair on a recent afternoon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For clients like Zacc Lofton, the personal service and friendly conversation in the RV is a welcome change from the rest of his busy life. Lofton, who works remotely for an insurance company, has been seeing Hall for about three years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m more so on the quiet side, but Marcus somehow gets me to talk,\u201d Lofton said. \u201cHe finds some way to ask me about how my day\u2019s going.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Even in an RV, the barber chair is a special place for Hall\u2019s clients, a place where they feel comfortable sharing details about their lives. With customers ranging from college football coaches to 3-year-olds, Hall never knows where the conversation will go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll types of stories come through the barbershop,\u201d he said, likening it to therapy. The time in his chair may be the only time his clients have to slow down and let themselves be cared for, or share details about relationships or work. Sometimes they just fall asleep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n