GROOMED MEN & LADIES, SOUTH AFRICA

Located in Paardevlei, Somerset West, Eric Lovemore’s barbershop offers a welcoming environment with nature at its heart

After a successful career as a fashion designer in London, Eric Lovemore turned to the world of barbering in 2015 and hasn’t looked back. “Hair has always been in my blood. I’ve always worked with hair designers and artistic teams to put my shows together for fashion weeks, so I built up an amazing relationship with people in the industry,” he tells us. Migrating from the world of fashion wasn’t always part of Eric’s plan, however after the death of his Mum during a family holiday he decided to move back to South Africa to look after his Dad. Eric noticed that barbering was becoming a trend in South Africa, and he recalled a conversation he’d had with his Mum in 2010: “She was a businesswoman and my mentor. I told her ‘I’d love to open up a group of barbershops,’ and she said, ‘whatever you do, you better make sure you know how to do it!’.”

Now Eric runs Groomed Academy, delivering barber and male grooming training in South Africa, teaching a full genre of courses on everything from cutting hair to full body waxing, manicures, and pedicures. After opening the academy it was a natural progression for Eric to then open his flagship barbershop, Groomed Men & Ladies. “I want it to be very different and to be an experience. Our flagship store is in an area called Somerset West, which is in the Western Cape, and it’s surrounded by a cheetah sanctuary,” Eric tells us. “I wanted my clients to be able to look out of the windows and see the cheetahs roaming around,” he adds. Eric is on the board for the Cheetah Outreach Trust and a percentage of the money that the salon makes is donated to their Cheetah Outreach programme, helping to educate people in Africa.

The barbershop is an extension of the sanctuary that it sits alongside, “We are about five minutes’ walk from the beach, so the idea behind the interior of the barbershop was for it to be white washed, with slightly weathered, reclaimed wood to give a more relaxed feeling,” he explains. The experience at Groomed Men & Ladies isn’t about coming in for a quick cut and a shave, Eric tells us that its important his clients don’t feel like they are in a beauty salon but a gentleman’s grooming paradise, adding, “We have a lifestyle in South Africa where men cycle, run, play rugby – they’re very sporty, and they believe in removing the hair from their bodies so that is popular with our clients.”

Communication is important to Eric and the way his salon runs. Allowing the clients to interact with each other but not to feel too exposed is important in creating a relaxed atmosphere. “When I designed the interior, I wanted my workstation to be this big table with two barbers on each side and I wanted the mirrors to be invisible ghost mirrors,” he tells us. The desired effect at Groomed Men & Ladies is that clients feel like they’re at home with friends, chatting and, more importantly, watching sport on the televisions Eric has installed. “Our clients come in and they bring their partners who can sit on the sofas while their husband is having a cut. It’s all about that relaxed atmosphere – you come in, you sit down, have a nice chat with your mate, and you also get a great haircut,” he explains.

Attention to detail is key. When clients enter the shop, they are met with a runway passage before arriving at reception and moving into the barbershop. (“It’s not this feeling of walking through the door and everyone looks at you,” Eric adds). He tells us that even the aromas in his barbershop are key to the customer experience, “We burn lemon grass, so there’s a spa-like feeling and the music is Ibiza lounge type music.”

And it’s not just male clients that enjoy the atmosphere at the shop. Eric found that women who were turning up with their partners started asking if they could have a treatment. “Eventually I said, look, I’m obviously missing something because that’s another income stream. When you go to the hairdressing salon, the hairdressers are cutting and there might be one barber that’s working there so I’m going to have a private section which will be our ladies’ bar. Now when women come in, they can have their hair washed or blow dried,” he explains. Eric’s brand evolved from Groomed Men to Groomed Men & Ladies not only at his flagship store but across all his barbershops, maintaining his key message, ‘We don’t turn anyone away.’