Support Casey's new inclusive barbershop: Wicked Barbering

Hello! My name is Casey and I am a licensed barber here in Vermont, currently working at the locally-loved Star Barbershop in downtown Rutland City.

While attending barbering school, I learned to love all things hair, but found a certain kind of joy when it came to color processes and the way they could offer someone a truly unique look. Watching the client shine with confidence when they looked in the mirror at the end of an appointment filled my heart to the brim! After completing school, I was honored to be hired at a barbershop with so much history and notoriety in our community. I have loved my time at Star Barbershop, and have grown very much in my cutting skills, but I have found myself truly missing the joy that providing color services has always brought me.

Before I even graduated from barbering school, I knew that, above all, I wanted to create a safe space for my clients. I wanted to be able to offer an environment where people felt welcomed and included while sitting in my chair; a space where everyone could be themselves and feel safe.

These two things are what bring me to my next journey: opening my own shop!

My primary goal for my new business, Wicked Barbering, is that it will be a shop that can customize your experience based on your needs. Because my shop is a personal suite, I have the freedom to personalize someone's experience in a way that I have not been able to do in a traditional barbershop with multiple employees. I want to put more control in the hands of my customers so that they can all feel the freedom to be themselves; so they can all feel safe.

Working with such a broad range of clientele over the last couple of years, I have learned that being overwhelmed can look very different for each individual. I will be offering the option of a "quiet appointment", which allows the client to decline music, conversation, or both, based on what their needs may be on any given day. As a queer barber, I have been thrilled to connect with clients who are also apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, and I am so proud to have been told by many clients how safe they feel with me. This is the most important part of this journey for me.

Many of us in the queer community have similar stories about people and places that did not welcome us, and I am no different. Wicked Barbering will be refuge from those unwelcome places, because I want my clients to be themselves, both inside and outside of my shop.

While first looking into establishing my own barbershop, I applied for local business grants but was denied because my business and/or monetary needs were not large enough. I have been working diligently to get everything together to open my shop over the last several months, and cannot wait to bring it all together now that we are in the homestretch.

This is where you guys come in!

If you are interested in contributing financially to my new business, it would be deeply appreciated. If that's not something you can do, that's absolutely okay, but I hope you will consider booking an appointment with me starting in February!

I can't wait to see some familiar faces, and new ones, too!

https://wickedbarbering.glossgenius.com