Mall barbershop under new ownership

Hair Today Mall Barbers — a locally owned fixture in Shoppers Mall for 44 years — has been sold to new owner Lindsay Dietrich, who officially took over the barbershop on Nov. 3 for an undisclosed amount.

The business was first opened by Roy Merino in 1971 and has changed hands four times since. Dietrich purchased the shop from longtime owners Jim and Margaret Murray, marking the latest in a series of transitions for the barbershop.

The opportunity came unexpectedly, Dietrich, who also owns Systems Beauty College, told the Sun on Friday.

The idea of buying Hair Today began with a routine errand, she said.

“I had no plans of doing this. I had to take some paperwork from my school for Jim to review … So I took that over to him, and just as I was leaving, he said, ‘I have something to run by you here.’ So that was it,” she said.

“This has not been even a six-month process. I think that was in August.”

Dietrich said the purchase — the cost of which she declined to disclose — made sense because of her background as an educator and stylist, and because her daughter works at Hair Today.

“One of my daughters is a hairstylist here and has been for about four years … so she’s now my manager here,” she said with a laugh. “She’s the one bossing me around out there.”

Dietrich’s path into the beauty industry was anything but direct.

“My background — I actually was originally going to school for engineering, so it was nowhere near hair,” she said. “It wasn’t until … I moved back to Brandon, and the whole time, my sister kept saying, ‘Why don’t you do hair? It’s something you always wanted to do.’”

After enrolling in hair school in 2011, Dietrich worked in a salon before moving into teaching.

“The hair school that I attended put a job posting asking for an instructor … so I ran down there and asked if I could have a job,” she said. She later bought the school when the previous owner prepared for retirement.

The shop currently has eight staff — seven stylists and one barber — some of whom already know Dietrich from her college.

“Of the eight that are here, three of them are past students, and one is my daughter,” she said. “So, 50 per cent of them already know me and know that I’m not that type of person that’s going to push them past their comfort zone.”

While Hair Today is known for walk-ins and traditional barbering, Dietrich plans to broaden its services.

“I definitely want us to sort of re-imagine and have more of that salon feel than just your average mall barbers,” she said. “Mall salons are always going to be a convenience thing … but I want to start gearing it towards more colour services and texture services, maybe more extension types of things.”

Though Dietrich is considering changes, she hasn’t decided whether to rename the business.

“Keeping ‘Mall Barbers’ in it holds a soft spot,” she said. “It’s one of the longest-running businesses in the Shoppers Mall … I’m not opposed to changing it if something hits me one day, but I know there will be a lot of sad people out there if I took out that ‘Mall Barbers.’”

For now, Dietrich is focused on getting through her first holiday season as owner.

“My main goal is to get us through Christmas, and then I’ll come up with some ideas,” she said. “I’m not opposed to ever opening up another salon … but right now, it’s not in my five-year plan.”

Advertising and awareness are already part of her strategy.

“My Facebook page is a week old, and it’s already getting quite a bit of following … We definitely want to get the name out there,” she said. “Word of mouth is everything.”

Despite the risks that come with buying a business, Dietrich said she feels confident.

“There’s always that financial scare right off the hop,” she said. “But I’m optimistic. I’ve done really well with Systems Beauty College … I’m the right amount of scared, I think.”

As Hair Today Mall Barbers begins its next phase under her leadership, Dietrich’s message to Brandon residents is “just come see us.”

» aodutola@brandonsun.com

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