THE INTERVIEW

WE SAT DOWN WITH LUCA JONES AND SCOTT HUMPHREYS FOR THE INTERVIEW TO FIND OUT HOW KITCH WAS BORN AND THE INSPIRATION BEHIND IT

HAVE YOU ALWAYS WORKED IN THE HAIR INDUSTRY?

Scott: No, I was fashion based before, I was a bespoke tailor on Saville Row, and then I was a couturier for Vivienne Westwood. I was always into hair because my Mum’s best friend owned a salon, so I did my work experience there on reception. If things didn’t work out in fashion, I knew that was of interest to me.

Luca: I’ve been in the industry for 26 years now. I started when I was 14 and I always knew that’s what I wanted to do. My first toys were my Mum’s mannequin heads, so I was always braiding and styling hair.

HOW DID YOU BOTH MEET?

Luca: I was working in Spitalfields Market where Scott’s barbershop was. Eventually I asked someone “Who’s that new blonde guy with the tattoos?” We went for a drink and we’ve been together ever since.

SO, HOW WAS KITCH BORN?

Luca: Quite quickly our clients started to move between the two shops. My clients started going to Scott’s for shaves and beard grooming.

Scott: And if anyone came in with long hair I told them “go and see my boyfriend”.

Luca: And then we thought this is a bit stupid giving someone else all our money, and we decided to open the salon. Also, women weren’t allowed in Scott’s shop.

Scott: No women at all. Even if a woman had a pram, and they were waiting for their boyfriend they weren’t allowed to come in the shop, so it didn’t fit with who we are as barbers and as people. We’re everything under one roof which is how it should be.

WHAT IS THE ETHOS BEHIND KITCH?

Luca: After Covid everyone spent a lot of time working on themselves to think about and research what a good haircut is, what a good beard is and what people want. From the beginning we had gender-neutral pricing and charged by appointment time because it just made sense, and the stories people told us about their experiences made us realise we’d actually done something quite special.

Scott: It was something big for the queer community and the trans community, but also, we wanted every type of client to feel comfortable because there are a lot of straight people that also don’t like the environment in some shops and find it intimidating.

WHERE DOES THE NAME ‘KITCH’ COME FROM?

Luca: It’s all based around the idea of the kitchen. My Mum trained to be a hairdresser when I was growing up, so there was always someone in the kitchen and then in my twenties and for most of my thirties I would do hair at home three nights a week after work. I had nice clothes, went on holiday and everyone was like, “How do you do this?” and I told them it’s because I worked hard. I was working double days - you can earn so much money doing hair in the kitchen. Even some of my clients now have been to five of my kitchens over the years, so it is quite nice to have that atmosphere in the shop. The feeling we’ve created is what we’re most proud of – and that’s the hardest thing to determine when you open a business.

WHAT’S ON THE PLAYLIST AT KITCH?

Scott: The Kitch playlist goes from the Vengaboys to Whitney, to Portishead, to Missy Elliot, to Fleetwood Mac to ABBA. We’ve listened to the same playlist for three years now and it just keeps getting longer.

Luca: When we open more salons we’ll have it playing from them all!

HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE CLIENT EXPERIENCE WHEN IT CAME TO THE PLANNING AND DESIGN OF THE SALON?

Scott: We wanted something that appealed to us because we’re going to be working here every day of our lives! Once we had the ‘Kitch’ idea and Luca came up with the kitchen concept I really liked the idea of it being 1950s and inspired by the street in Edward Scissorhands. So that was our moodboard.

Luca: The clients are our focus, not to make lots of money. We want to stay in the middle ground so people still feel like they can come and get their hair done.

Scott: A lot of people see the celebs that come to our shop and they start to worry about how much it’s going to cost them but we’re priced really fairly. Everyone chats to each other, it’s such a fun place to work.

HOW HAS YOUR CLIENTELE CHANGED SINCE OPENING KITCH?

Scott: I would say it’s about 60/40 split now. I’ve got lots of female clients who were either previously turned away by barbers or hairdressers who didn’t know how to or wouldn’t give them a buzz cut or fade because it wasn’t feminine. I don’t think that far into it. If someone wants to chop their hair off, I chop their hair off!

Luca: We also have a lot of gender-neutral clients so we try to use names instead of pronouns and one of the first things we ask is do you want to look more masculine or feminine? It’s the easiest question but it determines where your ideas are.

Scott: We’re part of queer culture and we’re still reprogramming our brains. Luca: We’re all going to get it wrong but it’s how you deal with it and recover.