New barber shop trio's skills are state of the art

The new owners of Fresh Crew Barbers, from left, Mase Makabaha (29), Vea Fonua (29) and Joel...
The new owners of Fresh Crew Barbers, from left, Mase Makabaha (29), Vea Fonua (29) and Joel Taniora (30) at their newly opened Princes St store. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
A trio of barbers is hoping its new business will be a cut above.

The newly opened Princes St shop, Fresh Crew Barbers, is a blueprint its owners are hoping to replicate elsewhere in New Zealand.

Between them owners Mase Makabaha, Vea Fonua and Joel Taniora have more than two decades of experience as barbers, and wanted to change people's views of the traditional barber shop.

"We want to bring the new school to an old-school tradition," Mr Taniora said.

It has been a whirlwind week for the barbers, who came up with the idea of starting their own barber shop last week.

"We found this space last Thursday, had the keys at 4.30pm, and then started painting," Mr Fonua said.

Among their clients were Otago Nuggets and Highlanders players. The trio specialised in modern and classic cuts, and could complete styles with a cut-throat razor.

"We can do designs, and we have done stuff like Warriors logos in people's hair," Mr Taniora said.

While it was a men's barber shop, females visited to have specialist images and designs cut into their hair, such as worn by music star Rihanna.

Mr Fonua said they planned to get a licence to teach barbering, and have barber shop stores in Invercargill and Wellington, and another in Dunedin.

- hamish.mcneilly@odt.co.nz

 

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