StylesVille Barber Shop & Beauty Salon is a family-owned business founded in June 1957. It is regarded as the San Fernando Valley’s oldest Black-owned barbershop.
Greg Faucett is the shop’s third-generation manager and has been cutting hair since he was a youth. The barbershop has served athletes and musicians such as jazz legend Miles Davis and basketball star Paul George who currently is on the injured list for the Los Angeles Clippers.
The business was founded by Faucett’s grandmother and late grandfather, Freddie, across the street from its current location in Pacoima. The shop has become an established fixture in the local market through its 65 years of service.
Faucett said Freddie likely caught the bug to start his own business through being raised near a barbershop on 33rd Street and Central Avenue in Alameda. According to Faucett, Freddie picked up a gig cleaning the barbershop. He realized the value a barbershop could bring to a community and with his wife later founded StylesVille.
“By my grandmother and grandfather owning the business, traveling around the world and also doing real estate, that was a key to the community to help people see the future and motivate themselves, to push themselves to get to where they would like to get to a life,” Faucett said.
Motivating legacy
The effort that Faucett’s grandparents put into creating and maintaining the business is a defining motivator for him to continue his profession as a barber, manager and friend to guests.
“I think the reason why I love this business so much would do anything and everything to keep it in the family is because I saw my grandfather and grandmother put blood, sweat and tears into this business to get it where it is right now,” Faucett said. “I’d be stupid to get rid of something that was built to be here, not just for me, but for my family and my family’s family.”
Faucett takes pride in being his own boss, which allows him to set his own hours and control how the business operates and takes care of its guests. For example, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he switched StylesVille’s walk-in only policy to appointments only to minimize the risk of getting his mother and grandmother sick, because he lives with both of them.
The historic barbershop managed to trudge through the woes of the pandemic that eliminated many small businesses. Faucett attributed his business’ survival to his skills as a business owner and to the loyalty of StylesVille’s customers.
Repeat customers
“I tell my customers this all the time: ‘You don’t ever have to give me a tip. It’s nice that you do give me a tip, but my tip is you coming back every two weeks, every three weeks, every month,’” Faucett said. “That’s my tip right there because you pass up 1,000 barbershops from wherever you’re coming from to get to me.”
Faucett treats his customers as he would his own family. “Cool rapport” and “good communication” are what he aims for when providing haircuts. That applies regardless of how long guests have been coming to the barbershop.
When asked about a favorite story of running the barber shop, Faucett said he had plenty but that in general, every day he wakes up and gets to do his job is a good day. For him, his favorite days revolve around the little things, like conversations he has with customers or picking up a phone call from a friend checking in with him.
Faucett’s advice to aspiring business owners is to take the chance and run with it if an opportunity presents itself.
“That’s a lifetime chance you may never get again,” Faucett said. “If you have a chance to do it once, that may be your only chance to do it so, you’d better make the best of it, enjoy it and run with it.”