There’s a barber shop at the bottom of one of Exeter’s independent streets which is doing things differently.
The Roots Foundation, which opened its doors in 2017, was the 海角视频’s first vegan barber shop.
And there’s so much more going on here – they’re a barber shop, yes – but not as you know it.
It’s a space that is free of constraint in many senses – everyone is welcome through Roots’ New Bridge Street doors.
Barbering is often thought of as a male dominated industry, but here, anyone and everyone can come and get their hair cut.
The phrase adopted by business owners Luke Burgon and PJ Shepherd is “positivity, inclusivity and compassion”. They don’t like to put labels on things, and that’s reflected in the space.
The shop itself has a relaxed, hip vibe – its simplistic design with clean white walls, reclaimed woods and vivid green plants spotted around make it a space you want to spend time in.
This isn’t a place to rush through a haircut or a shave, it’s a whole experience – from the freshly prepared coffee to the zine library where you can come in, have a drink and a browse.
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The Roots Foundation is also used as a social space – where events such as live music and theatre performances have taken place.
Customer service is top notch and effortless. Simple things, like the fact the pair have created their own coffee, show the dedication to a vision that is far beyond the constraints of what you’d usually expect from a barber shop.
We went down to the Roots Foundation to find out more from Luke, 37 and PJ, 35.
How did you meet and how did the Roots Foundation begin?
Luke: “We worked together in a barbers around three, four years ago. We’d always discuss where we’d like to work – unfortunately where we were working wasn’t the place that fitted either of our ethics – although they were very different, they had some common things in line.
“It just came to the point that the place we would have liked to work didn’t exist, at least in Exeter. That brought us to a conversation of ‘why can’t we do something ourselves?’ It naturally led on from there.
PJ: “We didn’t really fit in where we worked – it didn’t feel like we could really be ourselves, which was not a nice feeling. We thought yeah, let’s create somewhere we can be ourselves and help other people feel like themselves. It happened organically and made sense – it wasn’t a life long dream. But I’m super glad we did it.”
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PJ has been cutting hair for four years, and Luke 17. It’s their first time running a business, and they both agreed that the learning curve has been steep.
PJ: “Without friends and family we wouldn’t have been able to do it. I need to give a shout out to my partner’s old man.
“He helped so much with building the shop and is who the coffee is named after – The Saviour.”
Was this your vision for the shop?
Luke: It’s fairly close, we wanted to use as much reclaimed materials as possible. Sometimes you can only get a limited amount of stuff for some things but most of it is reclaimed.
“We wanted the mirrors to be rustic, so off we go and find reclaimed wood. That helped shape it.
“The thing about the space is a lot of people come in and say ‘you can put pictures up here and there’ but we want a clean space without tons in it.
“We’d like one more barber and that’s kind of it. If you were driven by money you could fit easily another four [chairs] in here and not even think about it whereas for us that compromises the feel of the shop.
“It was a real big thing for us to make a neutral space without being bland. There’s no imagery on the walls of either aggressively macho stuff or either side.”
PJ: “We didn’t want to create a space that was overtly masculine or feminine, we just wanted to create a space that felt good generally. Being welcoming was really something very important to us.
“A lot of barber shops aren’t very welcoming – even if not consciously – to a certain type of person or gender.
“We wanted a space that was welcoming for everybody regardless of age, gender, background or whatever music you like to listen to on a Saturday night, we don’t mind.”
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You’re not a ‘conventional’ barber shop…
PJ: “Are we a barbers shop? Yes. Are we a traditional barber shop? Definitely not. It’s a barber shop in terms of the experience – we don’t wash hair, dye hair, don’t do balyage or more typical salon services like that, we really just focus on giving you a good cut.
"We're not a traditional barbershop in that we cater for all genders.
“I think that is reflected when you walk in – it doesn’t feel like a traditional barber shop, and we’re proud of not being traditional.”
But you are the 海角视频’s first vegan barber shop
Luke: “After looking into it we realised no one else had done it. We didn’t push it because we knew that, we just thought ‘flipping hell there’s isn’t actually something like this’, which is always nice.”
PJ: “It was like, if we can make the whole shop vegan then why wouldn’t we?
“As a business that’s what we do, if we have events everything will be vegan. Our chairs are leather free, our products are completely animal free and they are also entirely handmade and natural.
“That’s something that is a big part of our business and ethos – vegan, natural and handmade. It means we only work with small producers so we know the names of all the people who put this stuff in the jars for us – that’s really great and we really love that.
“Even if you’re not vegan and by no means all of our customers are, who wants animal products in their hair?”
What’s your ethos?
PJ: “The sentence we always come back to is that we stand for positivity, inclusivity and compassion. That’s the ethos that drives The Roots Foundation.”
Luke: “The ethos is be nice to people. What’s important to me is creating a space where everyone feels comfortable. Everything is important to me but that’s a big thing.”
What else goes on at The Roots Foundation?
PJ: “We are a social space as well. We’ve had film screenings in the past, theatre, live music – we’ve got some awesome live music coming up soon.
“[The space] is not just for events, it’s day to day as well – you can always come in and use the Wi-Fi, we always have a coffee on.
“It’s included in your cut but if you just want to come in and have a drink there’s a donation pot where you can just chuck some change in and help yourself.
“We also have a small zine library where you can browse everything for free to read in the shop or it’s cheap to take away. We have a small record distro as well – we sell a select number of vinyl from our friends at Specialist Subject Records.”
What are your thoughts on Exeter and its independent community?
PJ: “There are a couple of streets in Exeter known as indie streets and they really harness that energy that comes from independent people doing things out of passion. We love the indie business community.
“Just on this street there’s so much good stuff – the amount of shout outs I could give on this street is phenomenal. And all different stuff – there’s great places to eat and drink on this street, great places to buy cool clothes, great places to get your bike fixed.
“Exeter in general – given its size which is not that big – I think it has a very cool creative feel to it, at least in some areas. If you were to just quickly pass through Exeter and go to the High Street you might not realise it. But if you just search a little bit, there’s tons of gems in Exeter. We are constantly inspired by the creativity of other indies around us.”
What does the future hold for The Roots Foundation?
Luke: “There’s so much [in terms of plans] we’re not actively looking but the intention is to have a fourth barber. Following on from that we’ve got a lot of things we want to do – more events, more things to include the community. Its going to be exciting. 2020 will be really interesting.”
To find out more about The Roots Foundation and to book an appointment or see their upcoming events, click here.