NEW ORLEANS - Step inside of its doors right off of Broad and Canal, where the hustle and bustle of everyday life dominates the talk of the neighborhood and you are immediately engulfed into an entirely different world. A world characterized by excitement, laughter, prayer, and if you stay long enough, a stimulating conversation about the issues plaguing the African-American community today. On the surface, a barbershop is a place men go to for haircuts and fresh shaves, but for many African-American men, the barbershop serves as a beacon of cultural awareness, a place to engage in political discourse and the foundation for social change.
Located at 130 S. Broad St., Heavenly House of Style is ran by Donald Ellzey. Ellzey has been working in the business for over 20 years now – and it’s safe to say he has the trade down to a science.
As I think back to some of my earliest trips to the barbershop, they usually went a little something like this: a bunch of people, familiar and unfamiliar greeted me with handshakes, smiles, and a typical New Orleans “How you doing?” I never thought much into it being born and raised in The Crescent City - a where people literally speak to you while you are washing your hands in the bathroom of your favorite restaurant.
I started to notice a pattern getting my haircut at the same place every week. The barbershop is really the only establishment I've been to that welcomes soliciting, whether it's from the “candy lady" or "gumbo man." Yes - people here take the food they sell, followed by their gender and make a career out it. But, even they vendors who come into the shop are embraced like regular client, because most of them are.
The organic nature of how people interact and react to one another is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. From my experience, there’s always one guy in the shop who makes you feel enlightened before you leave, whether he’s talking directly talking to you or you just happened to eavesdrop on a conversation happening a few feet away. Interestingly enough, conversation even changes if a woman walks in the door especially if customers are using foul language. That’s just out of respect, though.
So how exactly has this building helped to shape the experience of African-American men in America? I spoke with Hammond-based barber Darius Hall to better understand.
“The barbershop serves as a replacement for a ‘man cave.’ We go there to have free discussion with like-minded people who may be dealing with similar situations and it is refreshing knowing you’ll leave there feeling like a new man,” Hall said.
Hall also said the beauty of the barbershop lies in the fact that men can be completely comfortable in a space created just for them. A space free of judgment and ridicule. Unless you get a bad haircut, of course. Yes - some men take great pride in the way their hair looks. I know I do.
Things were not always this way, though. Here’s a brief look history lesson to explain how the barbershop became a refuge for black men.
According to Collectors Weekly writer Hunter Oatman-Stanford, predating the Civil War, many black-owned barbershops only served white customers such as politicians and businessmen. Stylists who catered to this type of discrimination became known as ‘color line barbers.’
It doesn’t come as a surprise, but many barbers didn’t go against the grain, fearing they would lose their job. They did, however, open up their shops after closing time to cut black men. By the 1890s, unions began imposing licensing laws on the cosmetology profession forcing African-Americans to open shops in their own communities.
Standard says “This was part of a larger professionalization movement, the same moment that the American Bar Association was established to determine how one would become a lawyer and the American Medical Association was established to determine how one would become a doctor.”
Barbers may not have realized it at the time, but they helped start an entrepreneurial revolution, inspiring other African-Americans to open their own businesses.
Today, barbershops are home to some of the most interesting people around who come from various walks of life and they will continue to be around for a long time.
