FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #49 Where Every Haircut Tells a Story: The 77 Barbershop Experience
When a barbershop manages to create an extraordinary experience that touches lives across the community, it deserves recognition. Meet Anna and Craig Houlette, the passionate couple behind 77 Barbershop in Stafford, Virginia – a business that challenges misconceptions about what a barbershop can be.
Their journey began with what might have been a devastating start – opening their doors the same week Virginia shut down all barbershops due to COVID-19 in March 2020. Instead of giving up, they regrouped, adapted, and emerged stronger with enhanced cleanliness protocols that customers still praise today.
What makes 77 Barbershop truly special goes beyond excellent haircuts and shaves. Anna brings 30 years of customer service experience while Craig contributes 30 years of military structure. Together with their children, they've created a family business that serves as a safe haven for everyone – including those often overlooked by traditional grooming establishments.
The shop specializes in accommodating clients with sensory sensitivities, including children with autism and veterans with PTSD. They've invested in comprehensive staff training and modified their equipment to create a quieter, more calming atmosphere at no additional cost. This thoughtful approach stems from Craig's military background and their deep understanding of the local community's needs.
Beyond haircuts, they offer private nail care and waxing services for men who might feel uncomfortable in traditional salons. Their two-floor setup includes a main barbershop area and a private "level up" space for more discreet services.
The Houlettes' commitment to giving back shines through their regular fundraising for veterans' charities and generous discounts for military personnel, veterans, their families, and first responders. This dedication hasn't gone unnoticed – they've been voted "Best Barbershop" and "Best Place for Kids' Haircuts" for five consecutive years.
Experience the 77 Barbershop difference at 1120 International Parkway, Suite 111, Fredericksburg, Virginia, or connect with them through their website staffordhaircut.com and social media @77barbershop. As Anna beautifully puts it: "Every haircut has to tell a story" – and their story is one of resilience, inclusion, and exceptional service.
Anna and Craig Houlette
77 Barbershop
staffordhaircut.com
77barberzone@gmail.com
+1 540-390-4163
1120 International Parkway Suite #111, Fredericksburg, VA, United States, Virginia
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guests. Today we have Anna and Craig Houlette of 77 Barbershop. Anna and Craig, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Hi Dory, Thank you very much for having us. It's great to meet you.
Speaker 4:Thanks, Dory.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I'm excited to dive in and learn all about your business. So let's start there. Share with us a little bit about your business.
Speaker 3:So we are 77 Barber Shop. We are located in the south of the Stafford, right out of 95 and Route 17 across. The best way to locate us is across Geico. We're in the business center of that area and we are a barbershop that has a specializes on grooming men's grooming.
Speaker 2:Amazing. So I love that and I was. I was stalking you a little bit and doing my homework and I was looking at your website and I was impressed with the services that you offer. So you're not just a typical barbershop, and so I love that you are offering those additional services. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:That's correct. That's one of the we decided this is the market for it. We wanted to kind of show everybody that we just not just average barbershop, that we wanted to focus on men's grooming in general, you know. So we not only focus on a haircut, we do a barbershop straight razors and shape up and things like that. We also offer nails and waxing services. There is some area in market over there that it has not been, you know, well-themed by men men. But we try to do it on a private environment because some of them don't want to do it on a nail salon with a lot of people around, so we decide to do it privately. So, um, we are a two um floors. It's a barber shop. We have the regular floor uh, downstairs and where we do all the service privately is more like we call it the level app. So it's on the second floor with the different other barbers on there that offer the services as well amazing.
Speaker 2:I love that, so share with us your journey. How did you get into this?
Speaker 3:tell us about that so, um, I the way that I describe it always is like 30 years of customer service meets 30 years of military service. So what we do is like, once we relocated to Virginia and I was trying to find myself what I can do, I went through a lot of in this industry and I saw the need of you know customer service and well, in retaining employees. So we said one day and said you know what? I think we can mix my knowledge in this industry, plus the background that I have in customer service, with his structure on the military. So we met and we said well, this is how we're going to do it. I think this we're going to start it this way. We put everything on it, every, every single dream.
Speaker 3:My dream is always to own a business and I got the opportunity to supervise other businesses before, so I kind of have a little background in how to start it. And I kind of sold the dream to my husband and he fell into it. So, and that's how we started, that's how we went in and put all our dreams. It's a truly family business. We have not just only me, my husband, my two kids also, that they live with us. We have four kids, but two of them are in another state and the other two that were with us are actually working or helping us out as well, so it's a true family business.
Speaker 2:I love that so much that you are. It's a great partnership. And then you've also included your children, so I love that. And, being a family owned business, sometimes I imagine it can kind of encompass your whole life. So tell me, when you're not busy running your business, what are you doing for fun?
Speaker 3:Well, I try to. As much as we spend time as a family in the business, we try to leave the business in the business and spend time with the family I, the two kids that we have here one of them lives on her own. So, even though that we spend a lot of time together when we out, we either go to the movies, we go to have dinners that's the only time that we kind of spend together and we travel. We travel when we have some time off and he has time off too. Well, we can't get to travel a lot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we love the traveler, so we always set aside at least two vacations a year and then we plan. We have to plan years in advance for our vacations, but we try to take at least two and we really like to go abroad.
Speaker 2:So nice, nice that's going abroad is even better. You're, you're truly leaving everything behind and you can just focus on. You know you can be in the moment and focus on your family. I love that. So let me ask you this Do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions about either the industry or about your business in particular?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. One of the biggest ones that I have to overcome is me as a woman. You know I was on many places that they will think that a woman will never be able to be in a barbershop. But I think a certain point that was not allowed me to give up, because it's something that I felt passion for it and I want to show everybody that not only that I have the skills for it, but I also have a personality and we make and one of our bloggers, I will say, is just pop for a trim, but it's honestly more as an experience. I try to do that. Every haircut has to tell a story. So I don't want just to be an average haircut or an average experience. It has to be from the time they walk into the shop to the time they leave. So we focus 100% in customer service.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that you have taken so much care into the customer experience I imagine that is not common in your field. But also, you are a trailblazer and what an inspiration being a woman in a field like this and being successful. So thank you for being a great role model for other women. And so that leads me to another question as a new business. When you started your, when it was a new business and when you first started, was there some advice that you were given that really helped you? Or what advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a business For?
Speaker 3:us. We put all our sweat, blood and sweat on this, so it was our future. There was no option for me to give up. But they all I always tell people is focus into what is coming and not what pause it. I don't know, it might sound a little bit difficult to understand, but we went. We overcome so many challenges during this state, this, this specific business, because not only that, we have to go fight against COVID because it was big on our business. We reinvented this structure pretty much. We went from just not only take care of our employees but we also have to take care of ourselves and the clients that were coming. So it was getting. We saw that it was so many challenges that we decided you know what is is, it will. If I have to give an advice, it will be. It gets better. Don't give up, just it will. You will get your your gain of your profits out of it, but don't never give up. I'm the kind of person I told my husband is like this is going to be the it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think I could just add. So what anna's talking about? As quickly as the same week we opened our barber shop and our grand opening is the same week. The governor shut down all the barber shops in virginia in march of 2020. Yes, so we really opened a day, yeah, and we had to close down for almost three months.
Speaker 4:Wow, you know, luckily we, you know we had some blessings and we had some help from our landlord and things like that. We persevered through. But when we opened up, it was not normal. It was all these, all of these requirements that we had to, you know, as far as hygiene requirements, social distancing, you know, no people in the waiting room. Everybody had to have an appointment for screening and all that. But the good thing about that process and going through all that, a lot of those procedures that we implemented, especially the cleanliness and sanitation we still do those things and that is something. If you go back and look at our reviews and what customers say about that, they're constantly talking about how clean we are and how clean the barbershop is and everything and where we will always keep those lots of good lessons learned and that we think that maybe people should have been doing all along.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, we overcome a lot of things, and one of the things that people appreciate is the fact that we didn't increase our prices because of that. You know, we keep it to the people affordable, exactly, and for the community. You know, we always have a lot of people who will go ahead and tell us well, why didn't you come to my house and do it? And I have to think about it. You know, yeah, I have a passion for the haircut, but I won't expose other people just because I want to help one person. So that's the reason what we decide. You know, we have to do something for the people so they feel free to come and not thinking that they will get a certain point infected or they might end up having COVID or anything like that.
Speaker 2:You two are such a great example of service over self. You really thought about your customers and their experience, and I love that you are looking on the bright side of it all and looking at those challenges as something that has made you better and stronger for it, and what grit and perseverance you have. Congratulations on making it through all of that. I mean that's wild that you, like probably were planning a grand opening and instead you're planning a shutdown, basically.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:So wow, yes, wow.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It was surprising, but you know it is. We have to overcome more challenges than this one, but we knew that together, you know, like I would tell him we, anything will. As long as we're together, anything will overcome.
Speaker 2:They're unstoppable.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. What is something that you wish the listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 3:Well, I will say, and I something that we have put our soul into the business that we express. So if you want to meet me, just meet the business, like meet us in general, just meet the business. I might be at the shop 24-7 pretty much, but once you meet us you know that we are not just I don't know how to explain it but we're not just a barbershop. We're more than that. I mean, we'd be somebody else's first haircut, we'd be somebody else's wedding day, might have to deal with some griffin, you know, divorce, first date. So exactly, we also that's something that my husband just brought it up is like we train, we want to be part of the community.
Speaker 3:You know, we have trained, uh, we get into the training for our employees to be able to accept people with any type of sensory safe. So we offer classes to my, to our barbers as a company, to so they can get certified. So we bring somebody into the shop to teach them to deal with sensory issues, you know, only for kids with autism, but also with PTSD, which we deal with a lot in this area, in this community that people sometimes don't realize. We also treat them people, like I said, with hyposensory in general, you know. So we wanted to put the trauma aside so they can be normal in our shop. So whenever we see anybody or we flag that person coming in everybody from reception to laundry everybody knows what to do.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is really exceptional service that you are providing. That is really cool. I commend you on that. That's amazing.
Speaker 4:No upcharge, it's the same call.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow. Sometimes it's difficult and I learned these due to my husband. He's been in a service for 24 years, maybe retired. So I, when we because we remarried pretty much, so I have to learn a lot from his experience, for him talking to me about it, to learn about this firsthand, to learn about this firsthand. So when we said and said, well, what is going to make difference, you know, what I noticed is we are around a military community and people don't know, because they don't see it that way. So we have a lot of clients that come with PTSD, with problems that they can be on a place with a lot of noises, with certain. Even our tools have been, with all our virus have been coordinated to be less noisy, to concentrate on just the client itself, you know, to talk about it. So that's the reason why we wanted to serve the community first.
Speaker 2:Wow, I'm really glad you shared that with us. That's amazing. That's that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Thank you for that oh no, we enjoy it honestly we enjoy it. We, my husband and I, we also um help. We, on veterans day, we do fundraising for what is it called Veterans Day pick a charity.
Speaker 4:We pick a veteran it's a different Veterans charity every year or non-profit, and we raise money for it. We have a campaign, we raise money for the whole month of November and the you know one thing that when and we also offer military and veteran discounts and we're one of the few businesses that offer them also to military family members. First responders, um, you know, police, nurse, uh, fire department, they all, they all get a discount in our shop. They don't have to show id or anything like that. They. I didn't have very many stipulations when I said I wanted to open, she wanted to open a business, but the one thing that I did is plant my foot in the ground. I said spent, you know, over half my life in the military and I'm going to give back to the military people because that's my family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing. I love that you are such a gift to our community. Thank you.
Speaker 3:No, thank you.
Speaker 2:So, if the listeners want to meet you, if they want to come visit you, give us your, your address and your website so people can learn more from you.
Speaker 3:So our address is 1120 International Parkway, suite 111, fredericksburg, virginia, 22406. Website is um staffordhaircut. com and um. Social media. You can find us as a 77 barbershop. I have a great um manager, which is my daughter, which he's in social media, always posting, making videos. You know, try to 100, put us on on Instagram. We have Instagram, we have TikTok, we have Facebook, so we are 100% social media. But they can look at us. I mean, we are there. Each one of us has a space on our website so you can find us there to see who we are. Or if you want to stop by the shop, I'm there, my husband is there and everybody you know, my barbers, all the people who work for me are there. And just to add a little bit, we have won five years in a row Best of the Burg for the best barbershop and the best place for kids haircuts.
Speaker 2:Nice yeah, amazing yes. Well congratulations on those awards Well deserved and thank you both for joining me on the podcast today and sharing 77 Barbershop with us.
Speaker 4:Thanks so much for having us.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for having us. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to fxbgneighborspodcast. com. That's fxbgneighborspodcast. com, or call 540-534-4618.