We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Derek Lynch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Derek, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

The great thing about being a barber, is this (hopefully) happens all day, every day. Sometimes one haircut may mean more to someone than another, but they’re all equally as important to us, or at least they should be. Sometimes it is or is not the technical execution of the cut that is important, sometimes it is or is not the conversation, the product recommendations, the styling tips, etc.. The challenge is identifying which is the most important part for that guest and focusing there, while also covering all the other points of service as well.

That was one of the main reasons I started, and still am in men’s grooming. Being a part of peoples lives is something special. To give them the confidence and feel comfortable is something I hold dearly. Whether it’s a job interview, a proposal, their wedding, or just their monthly haircut, it can really be something more than we as barbers may be able to understand. Being able to facilitate that extra boost of confidence going into an interview, knowing you somehow helped them achieve something, even as small as a haircut, is a huge accomplishment to why we do what we do.

Some of the haircuts I have loved doing the most are for folks in transition. If someone is transitioning, a lot of times, they haven’t had solid advice or feedback on how to style their hair in a new style/length, how to shave, how to manage a beard if they’ve started growing facial hair. I can’t imagine how frightening and uncomfortable it can be during these times for someone, and something I view as unbelievably brave. I love doing whatever I can to help people feel more comfortable in their own skin. Sometimes it’s as simple as education on how to style their hair a little better at home, and sometimes it means much much more. Facilitating a service to help people reach their best self is why I continue to do what I do, and what I always come back to when feeling frustrated or uninspired.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey? To be honest, I don’t have a “hero.” I have great respect and admiration for plenty of people. As I have matured, I’ve realized that holding people up to a standard or on a pedestal isn’t fair to them, nor me. Nobody is perfect, and I now admire people for certain things, but know I might be better at other things than they are. I have plenty of people I view as mentors. I ask a lot of questions, and I learned a valuable lesson a while back that I think about almost daily.

I was getting tattooed by a very well known and accomplished tattooer Steve, when another incredibly talented tattooer, Josh, came up and was watching him tattoo me. Josh asked the other artist such seemingly basic questions. Questions I would have assumed anyone would be embarrassed for asking. I had a close friend, Frank, who was a tattooer also at this event and overheard the conversation. After my tattoo I asked my friend Frank why Josh was asking Steve such elementary questions. Josh is so accomplished and so advanced, the questions he was asking almost made him sound stupid and unexperienced. It was then that Frank told me “Josh knew the answer to every question he asked and probably had better answers than Steve for those questions. Josh asked just to see how Steve would respond, what type of answer he would get. Josh wasn’t concerned with what anyone thought of him, he acted stupid to get a better and more robust response.”

It was that conversation that gave me one of the best lessons on humility. In a world of social media, everyone is so worried about how they present themselves to colleagues, the general public, customers, ect. Through time and experience, I realized other intelligent people would understand what I’m doing and why, and never judge me as being elementary, inexperienced, or slow. The type of people I want to partner with are the ones who know why I’m being quiet, why I choose to talk, and communicate the way I do. It’s almost a communication resume. I have learned from and created long lasting relationships with mentors this way.

There is always something to learn from everyone, whether it’s what to do or not to do, just a different perspective or a detail from an experience that may work for you. I think too many people keep a narrow focus on what success looks like, that they don’t try to absorb inspiration and information from unconventional places, that might give them a very unique solution to a seemingly broad or challenging problem.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Learning your craft: How did you learn to do what you do? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more? I went to cosmetology school right out of highschool. I went to highschool in an upper middle class suburb of Detroit, MI, where the only acceptable path after highschool was college. I knew for several reasons, that wasn’t my path. So I knew at 18 I would have to really convince my family that my path into hair would be the right decision, and a successful one with a future. I went to the best hair school I could find, which was the Douglas J Aveda Institute in Ann Arbor, MI.

I worked in high end Aveda salons in Michigan, and then downtown Chicago for the next 7 to 8 years, realizing I was not enjoying my career at all. I would just move from salon to salon, and that would help inspire me but only temporarily. When I got unhappy it was usually because I was at a dead end at a certain salon, and wanted more. I also realized the only time I truly enjoyed my job was when I was cutting my male clients. Mens grooming would become my focus, and it only took me 8 years to figure that out (haha).

Licensing is weird, I was a license cosmetologist, but needed a barber license to work at a barbershop in Chicago. I worked at a chain barbershop in Chicago, as a cosmetologist not offering shaves, and learned how to do things I hadn’t ever been taught in a salon like clipper work and fades. I worked with other barbers and taught them scissor work/longer hair, and they taught me more barbering haircuts. When I moved to Denver, I went back to school to get dual licensed as a barber and a cosmetologist. This helped me take things to the next level and work in a real barbershop and immerse myself in mens grooming full time.

Licensing was definitely a big obstacle that got in the way of learning more. At the time I went to hair school in 2006 barbering wasn’t where it is today. It had just making it’s big come back in bigger cities, but where I went to highschool in Michigan, there were no real barbershops. Any shops you could find charged $10 and were a chop shop. I didn’t see any career in mens grooming at that time and assumed if I wanted to do hair as a career I had to be a cosmetologist. They now offer “crossover” programs in Chicago from what friends have told me but they didn’t exist when I lived there. A crossover program is an accelerated course if you’re a licensed cosmetologist to go back to school for an abbreviated course and get a barbers license. They offered this in Denver, which was a big contributing factor to me moving here originally.

The skills that I think are most essential to barbering are probably surprising. These days, everyone has access to education even if it’s on social media and youtube. As the industry has grown, there are more educators & academies now than ever before teaching advanced education. They are really only focused on teaching technical skill, which although very important is just one piece to a bigger puzzle. The skills that I think lack from the industry these days are hospitality, professionalism, and true quality service. We as barbers are here to serve, and there has been a lack of education on career development, and the financial and business side of what we do. One of the hardest things that I think takes people a long time to understand is “the eye.” Connecting all the dots of a service to create a manageable at home, good, suitable look, is more challenging than it sounds, and for some it comes naturally, and for others it takes years. It took me a long time to get confident and comfortable with this idea, but when it clicked was the day I cut anyone’s hair comfortably.

Contact Info:

• Website: Rosemontbarbershop.com, Rosemontprovisions.com
• Instagram: @rosemontbarbershop, @rosemontprovisions
• Other: TikTok: @rosemontbarbershop