Beholder’s Barbershop is styling and profiling its way to success in downtown Orillia.
The barbershop had its beginnings in 2011 as Tea Beards in Gravenhurst before it was moved to Orillia in the summer of 2021, after a brief stint in the Netherlands.
After an unsuccessful start on Peter Street South, owner Johnny Ahsome and his wife, Alissa, moved into a smaller location at 154 Mississaga St. E. in November 2021, and they finally found their groove.
“We are the busiest that we’ve ever been,” Johnny Ahsome said. “We timed our move here really well because three or four barbershops all closed in a four-month period, and we had this huge influx of clientele.”
Ahsome has clients who visit the shop from Huntsville and Toronto. They make the trip for an old-fashioned, barbershop-styled haircut.
“The only barbers who are still around have been doing it for a while,” Ahsome said. “Starting off, it’s really tough in today’s economy.”
The biggest draw of Beholder’s Barbershop is the atmosphere, he says.
“When people walk in here, I like to think of it as them walking into our brain. We actually change up our wall every week. That way, whenever someone walks in, they see something different,” he said.
Beholder’s Barbershop is full of knick-knacks, old photographs, and interesting stories. One of the framed photos is of a client’s father who was a fighter pilot in the Second World War at just 18 years old.
“The story with him is he was shot down on enemy lines, was in two midair collisions, and was captured by the Russians,” Ahsome explained. “It’s important to have stories like that in a barbershop.”
Everything in Beholder’s Barbershop has a meaning, Ahsome says, which sparks interesting conversations with clients.
The name Beholder comes from a beast in Dungeons & Dragons, which Ahsome hopes appeals to children.
“We want to be very kid-friendly,” he said. “We like to teach young lads how to shave properly with a straight razor.”
Ahsome was taught how to cut hair at a young age by his mother, who he worked with in Burlington when he was 12 years old. After trying his hand at different jobs, including construction, he moved to England and New York to learn as much as he could about the barbering industry.
“I’m very comfortable with it after 32 years of doing it,” he said. “Every day, I think about all of the people who I’ve made happy through this.”
He enjoys the artistic creativity that comes with shaping hair and beards and says he is just as passionate about the industry now as he was at the start of his career.
“It’s fun,” he said. “The average barber retires at 75, and that’s because they are social all of the time and it keeps them young. I think I still have 30 years in me.”
Barbering is always changing, and barbers must adapt, Ahsome says.
“Barbers need to be progressive. It’s important to always be looking toward the future,” he said.
Styles and trends are often influenced by sports and pop culture, he has noticed.
“Thor had a mullet in the one movie and everyone wanted it,” he said. “Brad Pitt in Fury brought the all-short industrial cuts back.”
He says trends go through five- to seven-year phases, which always keeps him on his toes.
“The evolution of it is pretty neat. I love that kind of stuff,” he said.
More information about Beholder’s Barbershop can be found here.
