EAST FLAT ROCK – On a recent sunny afternoon, a regular was getting a trim as the movie National Treasure played in the background at the Man Cave, a barber shop in East Flat Rock.
Colorful and eclectic decorations — band posters, neon signs, a disco ball and a day glo skeleton — covered the wall of what customers had told Manager Abby Stumpf was “the quirkiest (barbershop) they’ve ever seen,” she told the Times-News Nov. 13.
There’s a barber’s chair in the vault, a holdover from when the stone corner building was a bank.
Open for a little over a year, the Man Cave just had its ribbon cutting Nov. 11 and is starting a new phase in its business.
Owner Kris Cuevas feels like she’s finally up and running and has worked out all the kinks, she told the Times-News Nov. 13. She recently joined the chamber of commerce and feels like a fully-fledged part of the local business community, she said.
“Because I started out on my own, there was so much to learn and so much to do,” she said.
Along with cuts, it offers straight razor shaves, hot towel shampoos, eyebrow, ear and nose waxing, and a free drink for every customer.
A cut is $40, a shave $20 and a beard trim $15, according to a sign behind the till.
Cuevas said that the salon has 32 appointment slots a day and they see an average of around 25 customers between her and Stumpf.
She’s also held a few events out back since the end of the summer with live music and food trucks and plans to ramp that up as part of a membership program that’s set to launch on Black Friday, with perks including a free haircut.
Now that she has her feet under her, she’s considering a plan to expand with an indoor-outdoor venue and lounge in the space next door.
Despite the name, the Man Cave isn’t just for men, she said.
Women, children and nonbinary people are all among her clientele.
She’s heard from people including nonbinary clients who haven’t felt welcome in traditional barber shops and has made an effort to make sure that’s not the case in her space.
“We are a gentleman’s salon … (But) we welcome everyone and we’re gender affirming, so we want people to feel very safe, accepted and included,” she said.
She said she might revisit the explicitly male branding someday, to widen her target audience.
But for now, she hopes the name evokes a fun, casual, den-like environment.
“You imagine a cold drink in your hand, video games, eventually a cigar,” she said.
Comfort and accommodation are the main focus, she said.
If kids don’t want to sit in the barber’s chair, she’ll give them a cut in front of the Pac Man machine, she said, laughing.
The Man Cave gives a 20% discount to veterans and first responders, which Cuevas meant to advertise by holding her grand opening on Veterans Day.
Right now, it’s just her and Stumpf, but she plans to add three more employees and max out the four chairs allowed under her license.
Cuevas, a single mom to six kids, has been cutting men’s hair for 15 years and Stumpf for 10.
“I’d been in a chain salon for a while. I just had some ideas of how to do things better,” Cuevas said.
George Fabe Russell is the Henderson County Reporter for the Hendersonville Times-News. Tips, questions, comments? Email him at [email protected].
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