A new men's haircutting shop opens its doors in downtown Bonners Ferry
—Photo by DAC COLLINS Owner Lindsay Oxford takes a seat at her station inside Lou’s men’s haircutting shop. The shop, which is located downton on Kootenai Street, is currently open for business five days a week.
Lou’s is Bonnery Ferry’s newest men’s haircutting shop. The shop, located around the corner from Mi Pueblo mexican restaurant at 6415 Kootenai street, opened its doors on Tuesday. Nov. 1, filling a void that has been left open for a number of years.
“I feel proud to be bringing something to my community that was needed,” owner Lindsay Oxford told the Herald.
Oxford, who has been fascinated with doing hair since the age of two, graduated from cosmetology school in Lewiston ten years ago. She worked for a local salon and held a number of other part-time jobs in the time since, but it wasn’t until recently that she decided to open up her own shop.
The Bonners Ferry local says she has entertained the idea of opening a men’s haircutting place over the years, “but it wasn’t until I started talking to my husband this summer that I realized there aren’t any barbershops open in town anymore.” After learning that some of the local men are now visiting barbershops in Sandpoint, she figured it was time to start something of her own.
So this July, Oxford and her husband began remodeling the space on Kootenai street from the ground up. Oxford, who has gone by the nickname “Lindsay Lou” for most of her life, settled on Lou’s for the name of the shop.
“I’m so lucky,” Oxford says. “I had the support of so many friends and family members...my husband, my dad, my in-laws. Between support and actual help and encouragement, I just couldn’t fail.”
In fact, even Dave Bailey, who used to run the old Barber Ship in town, gave Oxford some support, selling her a sink and a barber chair, and wishing her luck with her new venture.
According to Oxford, Lou’s has been well-received by the local community so far. She says that during her first week of business, “I didn’t have a day when somebody didn’t come in.”
While Oxford admits there is still plenty of work left to do, like decorating the interior and hanging the official sign on the storefront, the shop is nonetheless ready for business. Its two stations are complete with sinks, old-school barber chairs and Craftsman toolboxes to hold all the scissors, combs, clippers and other tools of the trade.
The only things that’s missing is the barber pole.
“At this point it’s a ‘men’s haircutting shop’ and not a ‘barber shop’,” the owner explains. Technically, because Oxford hasn’t attended barber school, which is different from cosmetology school, Lou’s cannot offer straight-razor shaves. Likewise, Oxford cannot install the iconic barber pole that has been a fixture outside of barber shops for centuries, at least not without risking her business license.
Oxford is currently seeking ways to get her barber certification so that she can offer the full barbershop treatment to customers in the future.
Oxford hopes to hire another employee once business gets rolling, but for now it’s just her in the shop.
Lou’s, which will be offering senior and military discounts, is open five days a week: from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays; from 12:30-4 p.m. on Wednesdays; from 8 a.m.-6 p.m on Fridays; from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays.