Beardsgaard Barbers Blog Top 40 by Feedspot
While we do a good bit of writing around these parts, we’re always a bit surprised when people want to write about us. But would you look at that, it does seem to happen.
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Chicago Tribune
SPECIALTY BARBERS FOCUS ON BEARDS AS FACIAL HAIR GROWS TRENDY
Natalie Anderson lights up as two former neighbors, Paul and Kristoffer Neumann, step into her newly opened barbershop for the first time. She runs to greet the men, who drove an hour from Vernon Hills to Beardsgaard Barbers, a three-month-old Batavia shop that specializes in styling and maintenance of beards. “I’ve had a beard most of my adult life, I’ve been growing this one for three years,” said Paul Neumann, eager to get his feathery 8-inch beard trimmed. “Natalie’s admired my beard since way back when.” … {Read More}
Kane County Chronicle
BEHOLD THE BARBERS OF BEARDSGAARD
It’s not every day you hear of a person traveling nearly 400 miles to get a haircut. But when your barbers are Blademaiden and Beardsmith, and their motto is “Welcome home, nerds,” you make an exception. Ever since Beardsgaard Barbers launched in 2014 in downtown Batavia, the shop has garnered national – even international – attention. “Before we even opened, we started seeing a good amount of interest from other places,” said Natalie Anderson, who co-owns the barbershop with her husband, Tyler. “Within a few months of being open, we had a pair of guys from the Twin Cities in Minnesota drive all the way down for an appointment.” Why? … {Read More}
BACK TO BASICS
When it comes to men’s grooming, what’s old is new again. Classic styles and services are making a major comeback with young men. And these modern males are paying more attention to their appearance, spending more time and money on products and services. One old-school style essential that’s undergoing a revival is the barbershop. Natalie Anderson, who owners of Beardsgaard Barbers in Batavia with her husband Tyler, says men today are gravitating toward barbershops for their precise technique and specialized skills. … {Read More}
NEW BARBERSHOP OPENS IN BATAVIA
The 1920s-era barbershop chairs help make Beardsgaard Barbers look and feel like an old-time barbershop. “We are doing it really right with a little bit of modern sensibilities,” said owner Natalie Anderson. Beardsgaard Barbers, at 117 S. Batavia Ave. in downtown Batavia, opened for business Tuesday. The shop is run by Anderson and her husband, Tyler. Tuesday was busier than expected, Natalie Anderson said. “We had 18 people on the first day,” she said. “We were expecting more like six.” … {Read More}
The Sharp Gentleman
GROOMING THE PERFECT BEARD
There are two things I love in this messed up world: my lady, and my time at the barber. I’m a bald man, so I’m not there for the latest hipster haircut. I’m there to have a skilled, passionate professional take care of my beard and scalp. I go in for a straight razor shave of my head, neck, and beard lines, and a thorough conditioning and trim of my wild face jungle. Words cannot express the cascading waves of relaxation that accompany the feel of someone else caring for your beard and scalp. … {Read More}
Racked
ARE BEARD BLOW-OUTS THE NEXT FRONTIER OF MEN’S GROOMING?
Natalie Anderson is informally known as the “big beard specialist.” She has clients who stop in for beard spiff-ups every two weeks, or even more frequently. Tending to giant beards is similar to giving “an upside-down haircut for the face,” Anderson said. She tames bearded clients using a blow-dry-bar approach: heat from a blow dryer helps her shape and smooth a beard, and lay it flat against the face. … {Read More}
Video & Podcasts
YOU & ME / WCIU / AROUND THE BLOCK IN BATAVIA
Join us for today’s Around the Block in Batavia, the oldest city in Kane County. Learn some fun facts and check out the must-see places next time you visit Batavia. The block party continues with Jon Hansen at the unique barbershop, Beardsgaard Barbers. … {Watch}
OUTSIDE THE LOOP RADIO – WGN – MIKE STEPHEN – #572
Mike Stephen chats with both Bethany Gomillion, Marathon Campaign Coordinator at Run Domestic Violence Out of Town, and Elizabeth Gray, marathoner and domestic abuse survivor, about fighting domestic violence; checks in with Natalie Anderson, co-owner of Batavia’s Beardsgaard Barbers, about that booming small business; and discusses educating CPS students about healthy eating with May Tsupros, Executive Director and Co-founder of The Gardeneers. … {Listen}
OUTSIDE THE LOOP RADIO – WGN – MIKE STEPHEN – #416
Mike Stephen talks to a South Side teacher about why he does what he does, chats local politics with reporter Mick Dumke, drops by Beardsgaard Barbers in Batavia, and visits the Chicago Kickboxing Club in Lincoln Park. … {Listen}
Industrie Online
BEARDSGAARD BARBERS, BATAVIA, IL
Barbershops these days are more than just storefronts on Main Street USA with fluorescent lighting, linoleum flooring, and helical-striped barbershop poles to greet businessmen and retired gents looking for cuts and shaves. Nowadays, barbershops have character and appeal to men of all ages, professions, and economic status. Take for instance Beardsgaard Barbers in Batavia, Illinois. In a community with a population around 26K, this relatively newborn barbershop, one that has only been open since September of 2014, is a prime example of a shop with appeal. The owners, Natalie & Tyler Anderson, have the education, experience and the right amount of nerdom to pull it all off. This Anatomy of a Salon will give you a comprehensive look at how they achieved and maintain their success and some insight into how creating a niche brand and business can make you stand out amongst the competition… {Read More}
DRAGONS + RAZORS: NATALIE & TYLER ANDERSON
These two are like a dovetail joint—the type of joint carpenters trust the most because of the way the wood’s pins and tails interlock making it virtually impossible to pull apart when they come together. The tensile strength of a dovetail joint mirrors the strength Natalie and Tyler have as partners in business and partners in life. They each have their own unique qualities and strengths, but when they come together, the Andersons are a force to be reckoned with. For instance, their barbershop, Beardsgaard Barbers, hasn’t even hit its two-year anniversary mark and its average client and revenue growth have both increased by 100 percent. The barbers (including themselves) are, on average, booked out 2-3 months in advance. Surprisingly enough, the shops average client is 38 years old, earns around $90K annually and is most likely a suburban dad who’s really, REALLY into Game of Thrones… {Read More}
WHAT MAKES THIS WEBSITE GOOD?: BEARDSGAARD BARBERS
Your salon’s site is more than just an obligatory line on your business card. As stated in No More Ugly Websites, Please, it’s a one-stop hub for your entire business. Since your website is likely the very first impression that a potential new client will have, it should be treated as simply another extension of your brand. There are various ways and means for incorporating your brand into your website, but the end goal should always be that a visitor will have a taste of what it would be like to visit your physical location, via your digital one. Here, we will examine our featured shop, Beardsgaard Barbers’ website, to see how they worked elements of their very strong and very niche brand into their digital presence. SITE STRUCTURE Beardsgaard went with a simple parallax-scroll site structure to keep the focus on the content of their site, while still maintaining a strong brand “feel.” … {Read More}
THE BARBERS & STAFF OF BEARDSGAARD BARBERS
“A cheerful bunch of weirdos that live to make people look good. Gleefully obsessive misfits.” This is how Beardsgaard Barber Owners Natalie & Tyler Anderson describe their staff. From their hobbies down to their refreshing senses of humor, the team both enhances and reinforces the shop’s niche branding, décor, and overall inanimate persona. All their quirkiness, unique backstories, side gigs, and hobbies help make this barbershop a truly exemplary destination. The Andersons have taught us a number of things about running a successful barbershop, one in which is the importance of being selective when hiring your staff. You want to hire people with talent, education and expertise, but you also want to bring on people who fit your mold and who are aligned with your vision and mission statement. You also want to hire individuals who will be able to interact and connect on multiple levels with the types of clients who are frequenting your establishment and who you are trying to attract. … {Read More}
THE TORTOISE & THE HAIR: THE RISE OF SLOW BEAUTY
At first blush, the idea of slow beauty isn’t at all appealing. After all, why do something slowly when you can get it…fast?? Fast is fun, fast is sleek and fast is sexy. No one tacks posters of sensible sedans on their pre-teen bedroom walls. That honor is reserved for those that can go zero to sixty in under three seconds. Our unquenchable thirst for “new-now!” has giving rise to an entirely new industry: fast fashion, where quick and cheap is prized above long-lasting and high-quality. There are plenty of arguments and studies that show how simultaneously damaging this can be for our ecology while greatly boosting (some) economies, but the long-term effects of fast fashion and beauty are still a bit unknown. As it so happens, the worlds of fashion and beauty often run on a parallel course; there are tastemakers and trendsetters, forecasters and critics and all of them work furiously throughout the year to discover what’s new, hot and ahead of the curve. … {Read More}
HOW TO THROW A PEAKY BLINDERS THEMED IN-SALON EVENT
Hollywood has been having a bit of a love affair with the early 20th century as of late. Thanks to films like Fury, and shows like Ripper Street, Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders, period fashion has come back into…well, fashion. This phenomenon has prompted men to become a little more open to experimentation when it comes to trying out the hairstyles featured in their favorite shows and movies. After all, if it works for Brad Pitt, why can’t it work for every man? A great way to encourage such experimentation is by helping your male clients to make the connection between the characters they love and the looks they are soon to by throwing an in-salon event. This event will gather together a group of men with a common interest, to encourage them to step a little outside of their typical style box and to choose a haircut/style based on their favorite look from the show. … {Read More}
WHAT IS A NICHE BRAND & WILL IT WORK FOR YOU?
There are generally two camps when it comes to “specialized” branding: those who believe that going niche limits your potential reach and those that believe that it can focus your business to a group of fiercely loyal customers, thereby setting you up for long-term success in a specific, tight-knit community. If you are a card-carrying member of the anti-niche camp and are open to having your perspective potentially changed, or if the idea of having a specialized slant to your business and branding intrigues you, read on and let’s get niched!* (*not a real word). WHAT IS A NICHE BRAND? The word “niche” has several different meanings, ranging from a literal hole in the wall to a sort of groove (in the “Stella getting hers back” sense). For the purposes of discussing niche branding, we are going to focus on the latter. A niche brand is one with a strong identity in a specialized area. … {Read More}
HOW TO INCORPORATE YOUR BRAND INTO YOUR WEBSITE
As you may have guessed from the breakdown of Beardsgaard Barbers’ website and the rather lengthy case made against ugly websites, your salon’s website is a hot button issue for us. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we can’t stress enough how important your website is to your overall business health. One of the things that we’ve been discussing this month is the fact that your site is the very first impression that a new potential client has of your salon, so it should definitely reflect your brand. It’s all fine and good to state that, but I think we can take it a step further and show you how. Let’s get to it. *Want to take it a bit further? Learn the basics from this article and put it to use with our Build A Better Website for Your Salon eClass! … {Read More}
USING COLOR TO ATTRACT MALE CLIENTS
The psychology of color is one of the more fascinating topics in branding. The way that color affects our brains is enough to make you go running for your wallet to shell out whatever the going rate is for the latest Pantone swatch book. The right color choice can make a difference between a sale or an exit and there are emotional ties to almost every color in the rainbow. That being said, there are certain colors that speak more to men than women and if you are looking to attract more male clients into your salon (or are considering trying your hand at full-on barbering), it could be worth your while to do a little research and employ some color tactics. Here, we examine the best color palettes to employ for male-centric branding. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR Do you know why Tiffany’s has a particular shade of turquoise or McDonald’s uses yellow and red in all of their branding materials? … {Read More}