A Princely Cut

Move over, $12 buzz cut in a spare chair under fluorescent lights. Hair styling for men has gotten a makeover with the rise of the upscale men’s barber.

Just don’t call it a salon.

Tapping into men’s growing interest in grooming and aesthetics, these barbershops offer an ambience and style not seen in most walk-in joints and, their owners say, better-quality cuts. The idea is spreading, with chains such as American Male and The Art of Shaving sprouting in other parts of the country.

In Seattle, Capelli’s Gentlemen’s Barbershop has attracted a loyal following in its two years at a downtown office tower.

The dark wood, overstuffed leather chairs and large plasma TV reek masculinity. In the waiting area, the magazines are male-oriented: Forbes, Maxim, Cigar Aficionado and Cargo.

“This is their place. They finally feel that when they walk in and look at the magazines and the TV, this is them. It screams them,” says Simone Loban, Capelli’s owner.

Loban was looking to transition out of recruiting sales into her own business when a colleague said she should be a barber. She laughed until she remembered how she loved doing hair when she was a kid. She did some research and found Seattle lacked a place with salonlike styling but with an all-male vibe. So she went to barber school for six months before hanging a white, red and blue wooden barber pole.

Loban says men love the concept and are less self-conscious about asking for advice on thinning hair or monobrows than when women are around.

Her most popular service is the $35 signature haircut, which includes a scalp massage, haircut, styling and a hot-towel neck shave with a straight-edge razor — a throwback that many men are no longer familiar with.

Capelli’s, which caters to lots of executives and downtowners, also offers an executive membership — or 16 of their signature services a year for $375. A few out-of-town business travelers who come to Seattle frequently also have become regular customers.

“All of our business has come from word-of-mouth,” Loban says. “We haven’t done much advertising.”

Loban says she’s looking to open another Capelli’s in downtown Bellevue, then she’ll consider a second Seattle store.

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