Discreet, the punchline is borrowed from rappers. “Here it’s square”! A slogan that sits on the blouse of Kent Ali, aka Kent Barber. “The play on words with the bob cut is a bit easy but it’s a mantra which proves that we work with care here,” explains the 28-year-old young man. It is in the heart of Northern Alsace, in the Haguenau sector (Bas-Rhin), that the hairdresser is based.
In Gries, precisely. A small village of 3,000 souls in which Kent opened his salon 7 years ago. “Creating a barber business in 2018 in a remote village in Bas-Rhin was pure madness. Everyone wanted to dissuade me from doing it,” recalls the native Griesois.
Fascinated by extravagant sports cuts during his adolescence, Kent quickly decided to make hairdressing his profession. “I found footballer Paul Pogba’s cuts brilliant and I wanted to reproduce them,” confides the young man. Criticized by his father who found “the profession a little too feminine”, Kent trained alone before finally passing the professional certificate.
“I did a few internships in traditional salons but they didn’t suit me. I am very influenced by American culture and, there, barbers were already very fashionable,” assures the Alsatian.
First the football players
When the Gries florist left her store in 2018, Kent jumped at the chance and bought the business. “I’m lucky because I quickly attracted a young, local clientele,” he recalls. But what changed everything was when the athletes started to trust me. » After taking care of Mohamed Simakan, ex-player of the Racing Club de Strasbourg, Kent convinces the other stars of the local football club and the basketball players of the SIG to have their beards and hair trimmed by his expert hands.
“I only work with the mower and I am a professional in gradients. This cut is very popular in the sporting world,” underlines Kent. Quickly, the young man made a name for himself among these athletes but also among a wider clientele by posting photos of these stars in his living room on his social networks.
A cup in New York
Over the past five years, Kent Barber’s salon has done very well thanks to regulars and private services. But an event will give it an additional dimension, when the Cholet basketball team comes to play a friendly match against Strasbourg last summer. “Mohamed Diawara asked me to do his hair and he was very satisfied. On October 20, he signed a big contract in the NBA with the New York Knicks team and, at the same time, he contacted me to come to the United States as a hairdresser, which was truly crazy! » says the stars in the eyes of Kent Barber.
Last month, the Alsatian spent 4 days in the Big Apple to take care of the “Frenchies” of the New York team, Mohamed Diawara, Pacôme Dadiet and Guerschon Yabusele.
“A true childhood dream to find yourself doing hair at Madison Square Garden where the Knicks train! I think they appreciated my work since they have already asked me to come back next February,” rejoices the “Frenchie barber”. A young man who now has a dream: “to accompany the French 3×3 and 5×5 basketball teams to the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028”.
