Markeshia Ricks Photo
A Sharper Edge barber at work in the restored shop.
Two years after a fire destroyed their shop, the barbers and braiders of Sharper Edge are back on their block.
Arthur White, the owner of the barbershop and the building the shop calls home at 543 Whalley Ave., said the shop is slowly rebuilding its clientele after a fire forced them to move out.
Sharper Edge’s new, bolder signage.
The fire happened Jan. 3, 2017. A new tenant had just moved the last of her things into the two-story apartment above the shop.
“I got the call that the top of the building was burning,” he recalled. It turned out the tenant had attempted to heat the apartment with the stove and somehow caught the building on fire.
The building sustained tremendous fire and water damage, White said.
“There were holes like everywhere,” he said. “And the walls and everything was just down to the studs, I think because the water was so powerful.”
The extensive damage meant that the four barbers and two braiders had to find somewhere else to work until their building was repaired. They moved to a building down Whalley Avenue next to Crown Chicken that White was renting for another business he was starting.
White, who established the shop in 2006, said though the fire was devastating, he knew he wanted to bring it back. And so he looked at it as an opportunity to modernize the space by opening it up, redoing the floors and finally adding a fresh coat of paint.
The shop was fairly quiet on Tuesday afternoon but for the televisions and music playing. White was hanging with his son and reflecting on all that it had taken to bring the shop back to the neighborhood.
White in the pre-fire shop days.
He said they’ve just gotten back into the shop for a few months and old clients have been slowly making their way back. The shop’s also getting back into its role as a fixture on Whalley Avenue. It hosted a big Halloween party to let everyone know that Sharper Edge is back and White said the neighborhood could expect more such events in the future including more block parties and cookouts.
“We tried to come back for the community,” he said. “We definitely wanted to make it better and have a bigger impact on the community than before.”
