Welcome Home, Nerds
We made it through 2020! And while 2021 does not look to be shaping up to be less intense, we’re all old hats at this by now.
After 6 years in business, we have learned to stay nimble through all the growth and trials, and the pandemic has tested every skill set we have. The most valuable of those has proved to be the ability to keep one eye on the macro (how the business works as a whole, and one on the micro (the day to day operations).
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Excellent news, Realm! Razor services are back! That means you can now book Head Shaves, Beard Trims with Razor Linings, and Haircuts with Razor Fades again. Huzzah!
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Now that we have your attention, welcome home nerds!
Beardsgaard has been officially open for a little over a month now and all our lives have taken a huge step in the direction of normalcy. Thank you to everyone who supported us in quarantine with your online purchases and all you wonderful people who showed up these past weeks in droves to get looking silky smooth.
We are pleased to announce that we have resumed beard services!
Please remember we still require all patrons to be masked when entering the building and any time they are out of the chair. Once your barber has suited up with their additional PPE they will instruct you to remove your mask so we can get your beard lookin tip-top.
Razor services such as head shaves, face shaves and razor finishes aren’t back on the menu quiiiiiite yet (might be Phase 5, but that is still unclear), but you will be amazed how close we can trim you without ’em.
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Welp, we figured it was coming, but the news to cancel all gatherings of over 10 people due to CoVid-19 precautions is going to be the bell ringer for our nearly always full 5-chair barbershop’s operations during ye olde pandemic. Making the decision to close means making the decision to put the livelihoods of 12 families at risk, and it is not a decision we take or make lightly.
We don’t know what the next few weeks will bring, but we do have a pretty good idea how we’re going to handle it.
We have done our best to contact all clients scheduled between now and our tentative reopening date of March 30th. We have noted all those appointment details to contact affected clients as soon as the world is pulling out of this thing (hopefully a few days prior to the 30th).
After that, this team is going to pull together digitally to entertain you, fill your brains with barberly knowledge, and tell you about all our absolute favorite Beardsgaard grooming products we keep in our bathrooms at home that you can buy online while we’re closed.
It may be mostly just the OG Anderson crew behind the scenes during closure, but the commissions of every online sale will be split amongst the barbers and shopkeeps of Beardsgaard, because as we mentioned, a lot of families depend on this place. We’re going to do everything in our power to come back from this with shop and crew in good health and good shape.
Batavia is the best town we could have hoped to put down roots in, and not just because of alliteration. We are so thankful for the staff family that has grown here, the clients who are also friends, and neighbors who are so nice they all sit at four way stop signs waving each other through. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thank you for being with us, Realm. See you tomorrow, then see you soon.
Over our five years in business, every barber that has ever worked here, even Natalie and Tyler, have been new to the majority of clients in our chair. Before you know it, they have a client list a mile long and are hard as heck to get in with.
So it was with Amanda years ago when she started with us as a nervous intern, and then Alex when he came to us an experienced barber in a brand new state. Now the two of them will become the third and fourth former Gaardians to go from Beardsgaard to business ownership!
Oh yes, all of these fools (plus Deena) = Business Owners
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“AHRRRRGGHH! You’re all booked up!”
Trust us we know, and we understand how frustrating it is when you have to wait 6 to 10 weeks to get a spot with any of our barbers (side note, that’s really for the standard work week people, you can still get in weekdays with a bit less trouble).
But what’s this? A way to get cut by some of your favorite barbers and not have to deal with the craziness of walk-ins? Yessir, we have come up with another way to get you in, and on a Sunday no less.
Once a month a few of the barbers will take turns coming in on a Sunday to take appointments, giving those of you with a hectic weekday schedule a fighting chance to get an appointment.
Since Sundays are our barber’s only guaranteed day off, prices for Sunday Services will include a Sunday Surcharge. They can only be booked by phone, email, or in person at Beardsgaard, no online booking for these sweet spots.
There is limited availability and it is by appointment only so once the barbers are full, they’re full! Also, because they are not coming in on their day off for no shows, bookings for Sunday Services will require a credit card on file, and no shows/late cancels will be subject to a 50% fee for booked services.
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In August and early September of 2014, Natalie and Tyler Anderson were repeating a mantra: “If we can get the doors open, it’s going to work.” With two barbers, a 6-year-old and no additional staff, we knew good haircuts would be enough to sustain this little shop.
Then the wildling onslaught began, great hairy men in need of transformation, and by the first weekend we brought on Colin the OG Shopkeep. Before long, the hunt was on for barbers, support staff, and people to run the massive machinery behind this big old circus.
Now, closing in on year five, the child is entering middle school, and 14 people work here, 10 of them barbers. Also, 60,000 individual heads have been in our chairs. It has been the ride of our lives.
To thank you for the soon-to-be five years of good times and support we’re hosting a whole WEEK of fun shenanigans for you all to enjoy, and an abundance of daily raffles!
Here be all of the deets.
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When we signed our first 5-year lease on this place, with a grand total of 2 employees (which were just us, Natalie and Tyler), we had no idea if we would make it this far. What new business owner does?
Now here we are, having signed for another five years, not only here, but on the space next door, because there is a second business now. 14 people work here right now, and we just ran a report that tells us that 60,000 individuals have received hair or beard services in these hallowed halls. It has truly blown our minds into a thin goo.
Long story short, those of us who have been here since the beginning or very near could never keep up cutting all the heads ourselves, so we had two choices: work around the clock, or clone ourselves. We got as close as we could to the latter, by way of training an army of barbers of Beardsgaard.
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A few years ago, Beardsgaard found itself in the position of bringing on five new staff members at the same time. Three were barbers from around the country, one local barber, and if memory serves, at least one Shopkeep.
In an industry where there are not enough barbers to go around, we had somehow found ourselves with enough to fill the chairs, and all was well. Years down the road, we finally got to expand to five chairs, which we never could have imagined when we first put this shop together. It was time to fill the place up again.
No, we did not adopt a goat. This is our contractor’s goat. We were just borrowing it.
Now that’s done, but much like the last time we expanded quickly, it is a feat to onboard this many new people at once.
While last time three of the four new barbers were long experienced and all were fully licensed, only two of the four new barbers to start since the beginning of the year are – the other two are incredibly promising barber student interns who may already be familiar to long time visitors to the Realm. There is also another Shopkeep, because of course there is.
Meet them all below. We’re working on all the new About Pages, it’s going to take a minute.
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Time goes by so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were opening our doors with just two barbers and also that many total employees. In the first year we settled our haircut prices in at $24, and have only gotten around to raising those prices by a dollar since.
In that time, rent has gone up a couple of times, as have general costs all over. Such is the world. With this in mind, the time has come for our prices to buoy to the actual costs of the day. As of July 1st, 2019 a few of our prices will increase.
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