Meet Kellen Mataafa, owner of Zephyr Barber

For owner Kellen Mataafa, owning and operating a barber shop in the community he lives in has been a dream years in the making.

Originally from Southern California, Kellen moved to Alabama in order to attend college at the University of North Alabama, where he began cutting hair for friends. During his senior year, he started working with and learning from the experts at Greasy Hands Barbershop, a shop with locations in Tuscaloosa, Florence and Huntsville. After graduating from UNA, Kellen moved Tuscaloosa to work with Greasy Hands Barbershop before moving to The Magic City and cutting hair for Single Barrel Barbershop in Homewood.

“Since I started cutting hair, I’ve been driven by the idea of owning my own shop. I always knew that I wanted to cut hair in the same community that I lived in. When my wife Abbey and I bought a place in downtown Birmingham, I knew this is where I needed to start looking.”
Kellen Mataafa, owner, Zephyr Barber

Kellen reached out to Austin Shirey, the owner of Greasy Hands Barbershop, to partner up on his new venture. The duo worked with local commercial real estate agent Lyndsy Yim to find a home for the business and settled on the space at 213 25th Street North.

“At Zephyr we’ll offer all the classic barber services: haircuts, straight-razor shaves, beard trims and more. We want Zephyr to be modern and bright, inspired by something you’d see in bigger cities such as New York, LA, or Atlanta. We are going to take full advantage of our space’s skylight to make this feel like an upscale barber experience—think classic barber chairs but with a modern, minimal and calm aesthetic.”
Kellen Mataafa, owner, Zephyr Barber

To help bring their vision to life, Kellen and Austin hired Studio Carnley to help develop their brand using a color palette of dark greens, off whites and darker tans. Check out their Instagram page to see for yourself!

Zephyr Barber + more coming to downtown Birmingham this Spring

According to David Schneider of Schneider Historic Preservation in an article for the Birmingham Business Journal, the future home of Zephyr Barber shop is known as the historic Birmingham Poultry and Egg Co. Building. Built in 1951, the 7,558-square-foot building is located in Birmingham’s Central City neighborhood.

Zephry — Zephyr Barber, June Coffee and Last Call Baking Co. will be opening their first brick & mortar locations in this building this year. (Nathan Watson / Bham Now)

In addition to Zephyr Barber shop, the building will soon be home to two exciting businesses:

June Coffee (formerly Epilogue Coffee Roasters) a full service coffee bar run by Jimmy Truong, who hopes to open his first brick & mortar location this April.
Last Call Baking Cooperative, a bakery concept led by Chanah Willis that grew from her apartment kitchen to a shared space in General. Now, she’s opening her first brick & mortar location next to Zephyr Barber and June Coffee!

Planning to visit Zephyr Barber for your next haircut? Tag us @bhamnow to let us know and don’t forget to follow @zephyrbarber to stay up to date!