We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Courtney Layne Rauchenstein a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Courtney Layne thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

It all started with our logo. I really wanted to capture the essence of barbering. So, I tapped into the rich history of the barber pole. In the Middle Ages barbers were also known for their medical practices such as bloodletting, tooth extractions, and minor surgeries. It is said that there was a pole that patients would grip to increase blood flow with a basin at the bottom to catch blood. This is how the spiral design was created, by the flow of blood down the pole. Coupled with blue and white representing veins and bandages. The idea to use a snake with the barber pole was inspired by Rod of Asclepius—symbol of the Greek god of medicine and healing—as well as the Staff of Hermes, which is associated with various domains, notably trade and commerce. Once the logo was created it made sense to me that the shop needed to have a name that referenced a snake somehow. I immediately thought of a snake shedding its skin. I began to look up terms and found ecdysis. I instantly liked the look of the word itself but struggled with the pronunciation for some time. The definition and the symbolism resonated so well I couldn’t let go of it. Therefore, Ecdysis Barbershop was created.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In 2003 I was a high school drop out with no direction in life. One day I was hanging out at a local coffee shop in SoCal where my friend worked when one of the barbers from the shop next door came to get coffee. While there, she was trying to recruit my friend to work at the barbershop as a “rinse girl”. My friend declined and pointed to me saying, “My friend needs a job though”. That day my career in barbering began. I have been in the industry for 22 years and I still love it. It’s ever changing, always forcing me to step out of my comfort zone and explore new things. Over the years I have acquired an instructor’s license, and a cosmetology license in addition to my barber’s license. Ecdysis Barbershop has been open since Dec 2023. I love my clients and the people I work with; they are legit my closest friends. It’s a whole vibe we have goin on. As a shop our vision is to be a pillar in the community, to bring barbers together on a more united front and to train new barbers for a stronger culture.
Our shop offers a comprehensive range of services including haircuts, shaves, facials, beard and scalp treatments, waxing, and color treatments. We utilize premium products from Keune Haircosmetics to ensure quality results. Personally, face shaves are my favorite service to give. There is just something about a classic shave with hot towels that reaches the core of who I am as a barber and makes me pretty damn proud to be in my industry.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

About ten years into my career, I transitioned into a barber instructor role. On one of my first days at the college, I met Rafael Perfecto (yes, that’s really his name). At the time, Raf was just finishing the barber program, and our interaction was brief. A few years later, fate brought us back together when we found ourselves working at the same shop. After five years of working together and realizing just how much our values and vision aligned, it felt natural to take the next step and build a shop together. Our journey hasn’t been without challenges, but through it all, our friendship has endured. I truly couldn’t have done this without him.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When we kicked off our build-out in July 2023, I did what anyone would do—I got on the phone and started asking questions about permits. I explained our plans in detail to several different people at the city office, and by the end of those calls, I thought we were good to go.
We broke ground with optimism, but the challenges showed up fast. Jobs went sideways. One contractor had to be fired. The floors were a disaster. After three exhausting months, we were finally ready to open—or so we thought.
In that final week of prep, a city inspector dropped by unannounced. He took a walk around, nodded, and then dropped the bomb: we needed a remodeling permit. Never mind the multiple people who had told me otherwise when I first reached out. That single remodeling permit triggered a chain reaction of new permits and what seemed like endless inspections, each one adding delays and complications we hadn’t anticipated.
We were crushed. Our clients were growing impatient. Barbers we’d lined up started disappearing. That unexpected permit set us back another two and a half months. The financial and emotional toll nearly broke us.
But we didn’t fold. It took nearly a year to recover from that hit—but we did recover. We learned. We grew. And we made it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ecdysisbarbershop.com
• Instagram: ecdysis.barbershop
• Facebook: Ecdysis Barbershop

Image Credits

Jeremiah Ramey