nothin Family Barbershop Takes The Kids | New Haven Independent

Family Barbershop Takes The Kids

Aliyya Swaby Photo

Rodriguez at work.

When asked what differentiates his barbershop from the many others down Grand Avenue, Javier Sanchez motioned to a playpen cordoning off a brown play horse and set of blocks.

It’s a family business,” he said.

That commitment to family is also apparent when Sanchez introduces all of his employees at Evolution SD, located at 314 Grand Ave., as family members — though none are related by blood or come from the same country.

Sanchez and his wife Laura Diaz opened the business two years ago, after Sanchez worked 13 years at El Jibaro Haircut, a Puerto Rican barbershop just a block away on Grand Avenue.

Evolution SD is one of many barbershops on Grand Avenue. Though some Fair Haven neighbors have argued they want to diversify the commercial ventures down the block, the homogeneity doesn’t seem to bother Sanchez — or his wallet.

A couple of days after Independence Day, the store was relatively empty. But normally, Sanchez said, the space is packed. Parents dump their kids in the playpen full of toys, so they can get trims and shape-ups in peace.

It’s the only barbershop that cares about the kids,” he said. We put on movies. Clients know they can bring their children.”

Javier Sanchez, Jared Sanchez, Joshua Sanchez, Diaz.

Sanchez arrived in the U.S. from Tlaxcala, Mexico, in 1990, when he was 30 years old. He first stopped in Oregon and thought about staying, but it was too cloudy in the Pacific Northwest. He had cousins and other family members beckoning him to New Haven, so he headed east.

When I got here, I loved the people. There were many Hispanics,” he said.

A lot of bad things” happened on Sanchez’s 15-day border crossing. Traveling with his uncle and a friend, the trio got lost and was without food or water for days. No one was coming to look for us,” he said.

Finally, they found a path and reoriented themselves. It saved our lives,” he said. Otherwise we would’ve died there.”

If everyone at the shop is adoptive family, Jovannie Rodriguez is Sanchez’s son. Rodriguez used to get haircuts from Sanchez and his actual son — who now owns his own barbershop in West Haven.

When Rodriguez needed a job at around 17 years old, Sanchez gave him one sweeping the shed hair regularly coating the floor. One day, the shop was pretty empty. Sanchez asked Rodriguez, “‘Do you want to learn?’” And Rodriguez responded, “‘All right.”

It took Rodriguez three to four months to get the basics down — edge ups to even out the hairline, trims, not-too-close fades. Sanchez offered his own head as practice dummy.

Month six, and Rodriguez was ready to take on real, paying customers. One of his first tasks was to shave someone bald using a blade. If you shave in the wrong direction or too hard, you can cut them,” he said. Do it the right way, and the scalp is smooth to the touch.

Does he like the job he fell into? He let out a whistle. Yeah. It’s a passion. I ended up loving it. I do it every day,” he said.

There’s a certain kind of comfort in working inside a barbershop. The place is temperature-controlled, and the people come to him for a chat while he cuts their hair.

Sanchez taking on Rodriguez as an apprentice mirrored what his father and godfather had done for him in Mexico — put him to work in the barbershop. Back in Tlaxcala, his dad sent him to work for his godfather cutting hair, when he was 11. First, he swept; then he started to cut hair. Unlike Rodriguez, Sanchez was not exciting about the prospect of the job at first. Then, gradually, he grew to like it, spending two years learning the trade.

When Sanchez finally started his own business, he called it the Peluqueria Chicarito,” a hair salon named after a famous Mexican soccer player Javier Chicharito” Hernandez. Sanchez’s nickname is Chicharo.

Rodriguez is from New Haven, lives near Winchester. His parents are from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The clients are from everywhere — representing many Latin American countries, but some non-Latino white customers, too.

At Evolution SD, a men’s hair cut costs $15, a child’s hair cut costs $13. A haircut with a beard trim is the most expensive at $20. Nine employees see about 70 clients each during the week, Sanchez said.

Legendary Nahua lovers-turned-mountains.

Tonia Cabrera has worked in the store for about a year, cutting and dying women’s hair. She’s from Ecuador, and been working in beauty salons for the past five years. Her workplace is one kind of family; she has a cousin here but most of her flesh-and-blood family is still in Ecuador.

Her three children are still there and expected to join her in New Haven soon. Si Dios lo permite,” she said. If God allows.”

Before New Haven, she was living in Queens, N.Y., where her stress levels were sky-high, along with her rent. Here is more work, more tranquility,” she said.

Sanchez was actually prompted to start his own business in New Haven, when his son — one of three Sanchez had with his first wife — took the plunge first and established a barbershop in West Haven. Before that, Sanchez worked in restaurants and factories in and around the city.

He paid his son’s tuition for barber school. Then his son told him, Dad, when are you going to start one with me?” They began to look for spaces together, but Sanchez realized he wanted to be in Fair Haven. His wife did, too.

When they first saw the building that houses what is now a bright, clean barbershop, it was destroyed” and ugly,” Sanchez said. It had been a barbershop before. But it needed a good renovation. The heat didn’t work. Walls divided the space.

We changed all of it,” he said.

Javier and Joshua Sanchez.

Most importantly for Sanchez, they encouraged a familial atmosphere in their business, that made people feel safe and respected, including customers and employees. You don’t hear bad words,” he said. It’s different than the other barbershops around here.”

Among the many immigrants in New Haven from Tlaxcala, Mexico, Sanchez was excited to show off the decorative items in the store that serve as memorabilia for his Mexican culture, which he hasn’t completely left behind. Walking across fallen clumps of hair to the front of the store, he headed to a three-dimensional wall hanging of an indigenous Aztec (or Nahua) man, carrying a dead woman. As legend goes, the lovers could not be together alive, and so a higher power turned them into mountains.

Sanchez fell in love with his wife over the phone, while she was in Puebla, Mexico, and he was in New Haven. A friend introduced them and they connected virtually over the physical divide — until finally, Diaz made the move north.

It was always my dream to come to the United States,” she said. I was happy to come.” The couple has three children, ages 9, 7 and 4.

In the future, Sanchez wants to open new branches across the city. But for now, he’s happy to be running his version of a Grand Avenue barbershop. Many people I met when I first started — now they say, Javier, congratulations!’” he said.

Click below to listen to excerpts from the conversation with Sanchez on WNHH Community Radio’s Open For Business” show.

This episode of Open for Business” was made possible in part by Frontier Communications. Frontier is proud to be Connecticut’s hometown provider of TV, Internet and Phone for your home and business. Their number is 1.888.Frontier and their website is frontier.com. To listen to the full episode, click on or download the audio above. 

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