Klutch Barber Shop moving to former Texas Gas campus

November 8, 2020 | 12:10 am

Updated November 7, 2020 | 10:14 pm

Photo by Ryan Richardson

Klutch Barber Shop is moving to a more prominent location — the strip center at 3800 Frederica Street in front of the former Texas Gas building. The new location, expected to open in the spring, will allow Klutch to continue to expand and explore their creativity. 

Owner Sean Ralston is excited for the move, saying the current location behind Great Harvest on Frederica Street is a little tucked away and hard to see.

“This new spot is going to be front and center and we’ll have a big sign,” Ralston said. “That whole area (of the former Texas Gas campus) is going to be developed, but that’s still going to be the front and center spot. There was just no better spot for us to do that.”

Ralston had his eyes on the spot when it first opened, but the timing wasn’t quite right at the time. 

The current space, though, wasn’t set up for them to continue to expand well — they would have had to split up their barbers on two sides of a wall.

With their current lease ending soon and with the support of his staff, Ralston felt confident in finally making the move. 

“That new space was my idea when I saw it come up, just kind of a crazy idea sitting at home,” he said. “Over time, the guys kind of expressed that they didn’t like the idea of splitting up. The barber shop vibe is kind of everybody talking and having a good time. It was going to change things a lot. They said they were all in with whatever it was going to take to make that happen.”

The new location will be similar in size, but Ralston said it’s set up perfectly for creating the environment they want to achieve. 

“It’s going to be set up exactly how we need it,” he said. “It’s going to be laid out kind of perfect for what we need and give us room to expand four or five more people.”

Ralston takes great pride in the service Klutch offers and their forward-thinking approach to barbering. He spent two years at Headquarter’s Barber Shop in Wesleyan Park Plaza before venturing out on his own.

“It was a great place for me to start, but I kind of outgrew what that shop was for,” he said. “It’s a walk-in shop, a quick haircut. Here we do much longer services. We got to take classes and learn new techniques. I travel the country and educate.”

Ralson said barbering is a booming industry outside of Owensboro, but he’s hoping it catches on more here. 

“It’s an industry that’s growing. It’s just really an exciting time for it. But really in Owensboro they haven’t seen that,” he said.

Business has grown steadily since he opened Klutch, but Ralston is always looking ahead and wanting to offer something unique.

“I just saw all this really cool exciting stuff, and basically this was a mashup of everything I liked that I saw elsewhere,” he said. “We wanted a place where we could do what we wanted to do. Most of these guys that started here when we opened were friends of mine that had the same goals of doing something new and innovative and exciting and give something you can’t get anywhere else. We still pretty strongly stand behind that.”

November 8, 2020 | 12:10 am

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