The Bench · Four Chairs

The Barbers.

Nine names on the schedule. Four anchor the room. They train together every Tuesday morning before the shop opens. They argue about clipper guards. They each have a chair with their name on it.

Chair I Black and white portrait of Marcus Ryder, master barber, in apron at his chair

Marcus Ryder

Master Barber · Twelve Years

Marcus opened the shop in 2018 with a mortgage, a Belmont chair he bought off a retiring barber in Bay Ridge, and a stubborn idea about what a haircut should cost. The chair is still here. So is the idea.

He learned the trade in a basement shop in Queens, then spent four years travelling — Tokyo, Lisbon, Mexico City — sitting in barbers' chairs and asking questions. The scissor work he does now is half Brooklyn, half everywhere else.

He doesn't take walk-ins anymore. Wednesday and Saturday, by appointment only. If you want him, you book three weeks out. He'll remember your last cut.

Book Marcus
Chair II Black and white portrait of Dean Okafor, beard specialist, holding a straight razor

Dean Okafor

Beard Specialist · Nine Years

Dean came up in a London shop where the straight razor was the first tool you picked up and the last one you put down. He moved to Brooklyn in 2020 looking for a slower room. He found one.

If you have a beard, he wants to look at it. He'll talk you out of going shorter and into going sharper. The neck line he draws is the line your beard was always supposed to have. You'll see it the second he hands you the mirror.

Hot towel shaves are his quiet hour. Phones go in the drawer. Conversation is optional. Most regulars fall asleep by towel two and he lets them.

Book Dean
Chair III Black and white portrait of Jonah Weiss, color and texture specialist, mid-cut

Jonah Weiss

Color & Texture · Seven Years

Jonah trained as a colorist before he ever picked up a clipper. That order matters. He sees hair as a surface that catches light, not just a length to manage. The grey he blends doesn't look blended. It looks like grey decided not to show up.

He runs the color camo room in the back. Twenty minutes, a custom mix per head, no ammonia, no commitment. Most of his regulars stopped fearing the temple grey three years ago.

He also does the texture work — curl cuts, waves, anything that bends. If your hair is fighting you, sit in his chair before you sit in anyone else's.

Book Jonah
Chair IV Black and white portrait of Sofia Lagos, senior cutter, leaning on her station

Sofia Lagos

Senior Cutter · Ten Years

Sofia learned to cut in her grandfather's shop in Astoria, where the radio played Greek talk shows and nobody booked. She still doesn't really like booking. But she's the fastest hand on the bench and the cleanest fade in the room, so we make her do it.

Tight fades, low fades, mid fades, skin fades. If a number is involved, she'll respect it but she'll also tell you when it's wrong. She is right roughly nine times out of ten and she is happy to be told the tenth.

Saturdays are loud at her chair. Music is hers. Coffee is hers. She'll send you out smelling like cedar and looking thirty seconds sharper than when you walked in.

Book Sofia

Pick a chair.
Pick a hand.

Five more barbers fill out the bench Tuesday through Sunday. The booking page lists them all.

See The Calendar