Going From Barroom to Barbershop

A man should feel at home in a barbershop, as if it were his neighborhood pub. Perhaps that's why JP Barbers and Perfumers has that comfortable feel -- it's run by a former bar manager.

Having once helped to run one of Moscow's rowdiest restaurants and nightclubs -- Chesterfield's -- Tamara Perree has since moved on to high-end male grooming, a new trend, she says, that's becoming more and more popular.

After Perree left Chesterfield's, now known as the Boar House, she had planned to start up a wine bar. But after the August 1998 financial crisis, Perree decided to do something cheaper.

With only $15,000 -- "just pennies," she says -- Perree set up her first men's salon, near Barrikadnaya metro station.

In November 1999, Perree opened a more luxurious, "English-style" salon, this time with about $100,000. To get an idea of what it's like, imagine an English pub with a varnished-wood interior; instead of pint glasses and bar stools, there are scissors, mirrors and wash basins.

Perree has a staff of 11 -- including four barbers, one masseuse, two manicurists and a cosmetologist. "We are doing everything that a modern man would like to do to take care of himself, but without a woman involved," she says.

Some of the barbers trained at Ian Matthews' world-famous school of male grooming in London. Matthews is considered the leading expert on cutting hair in the classic English fashion and opened the world's first shaving school.

But an image-conscious man has more to worry about than just his hair. Although some guys may think manicures are for girls, Perree has plenty of clients who would say otherwise.

"Whatever you do, a gesture you make, pointing to a document, smoking a cigarette in a bar ... nails are noticed," she says. "So we just make them look accurate and trimmed."

Most of JP's clients are foreigners, but the place is attracting more Russian customers as well. "They look the same," she says of her foreign and Russian clients. "Always the same, executives."

JP does little advertising -- the clients themselves are the best way of letting people know about the barbershop, Perree says. "Its amazing how much money you spend on advertising and get no return," she says.

"I think I get 60 percent of my clients [from word of mouth]."

Though Perree had never worked in a salon before she opened JP, she has picked up a few tricks of the trade herself. "I've learned to shave, and I do shave sometimes when we are very busy," she says.

Perree has no regrets exchanging the frantic bar business for giving $30 haircuts. "It was fun," she says, "but you have to commit yourself as a manager."

And commitment can be a tough thing when the bar is open 24 hours a day and workdays are 18 hours long, she says.

"I don't like to pass responsibilities to other people. I have to control everything -- and I think that no one can do anything better than me."

But the long days weren't the only problem -- she couldn't get used to the "dirty politicking."

"In Russia, it's very common," she says. "[Managers] can't accept the success of another person, so they start lots of talking ... behind your back."

"It was difficult to manage that and stay above that," she says. "Don't do the same, try to stay clean and people will respect you more."

But it might not be long before Perree goes back to the bar business -- she hasn't forgotten her pre-crisis plans. "I know approximately the location," she says.