Style & Groom, the London barbershop causing a buzz

Between the bustle of north London’s Camden Market and the genial calm of Tufnell Park lies a row of independent shops and restaurants that are quietly turning a sleepy strip of Kentish Town Road into a destination. There is Panadera, a Filipino bakery that recently made GQ’s “coolest things to do in London” list, Social Pottery, a hub for amateur ceramicists – and now Style & Groom, a barbershop opened by Thomas “T Styles” Yeboah, grooming stylist to grime artist Skepta, French footballer Alexandre Lacazette and rapper Wretch 32. 

“I don’t think of it as a barbershop, I think of it as a studio,” says Yeboah, 36, perched on a black suede seat in the expansive staff room beneath the main operation. Upstairs, monochrome and metallic details are offset by a honeycomb light fitting, the walls dotted with framed motivational quotes. “I want this place to be used for adverts, video shoots – anything. There are no rules.”

Style & Groom, which opened last year, is the latest expression of a 20-year career. He cut his first hair as a 15-year-old in his uncle’s shop in Tottenham; an experience he still recalls as “petrifying”: “My first client was a six-year-old. So I’m there with the clip, nervous and shaking, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, everyone’s looking at me.’ Instead of 20 minutes, I took an hour and a half.” 

His mum encouraged him to continue and to take the profession seriously, and he later took a job at a barbers in Finsbury Park where he remained for 18 years. There were downsides to learning on the job: “I made mistakes because I wasn’t ready.” But he persisted, becoming the architect of a fade style he now calls “camera ready”. Yeboah became known for having an eye that could spot incomplete transitions. When one of his clients, the rapper Chip, became a global star, he took on Yeboah as his stylist. Since then, Yeboah has been the go-to barber for various musicians, and worked on campaigns for fashion brands including Tom Ford. Last year, he was flown out to cut Skepta’s hair for the Met Gala. “I was one of the only barbers there,” he says. But he’s keen to swerve the conversation beyond his celebrity clients and focus instead on the team and the community that’s being cultivated. “I want everyone to get ahead,” he says. “I want everyone to come here and feel comfortable and important.”

The barbershop has long served as a narrative backdrop in film, theatre and TV, from the much-loved ’90s Peckham sitcom Desmond’s to Spike Lee’s Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop and Inua Ellams’ acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles, which premiered at the National Theatre in 2020. Barbershops have traditionally been viewed as a space where macho behaviour is indulged unfettered, but ultra-masculine posturing is something Yeboah is keen to move away from here. 

I can see they don’t feel helped or supported… I’m trying to build a community where we don’t feel like that any more

The atmosphere in Style & Groom is one of camaraderie and professionalism. Cuts are unhurried and ultra-precise, and customers sip tea or fruit punch. “Normally [at a barbershop] there’s no one to greet you, no one’s in uniform and you don’t know who you’re speaking to. Here, everyone talks to you, everything is free-flowing,” says Yeboah. The barbers wear personalised black-and-white branded T-shirts and the team is encouraged to conduct pre-appointment consultations. “I want you to come in and really know you’re going to be looked after,” he adds.

It’s all part of an overarching aim to provide the support and structure Yeboah found lacking when he was growing up. “I had to figure out for myself what I wanted to be,” he says. “What kind of Black person, Black boy, Black man? It was difficult…” He hopes to alleviate some of those insecurities, and diffuse the listlessness he sees among the younger generation. Yeboah says that, when it comes to launching ideas, there simply isn’t the backing: Black businesses attract only 0.24 per cent of total venture capital investment. “I can see it on their faces. I can see they’re not being helped or supported, and probably have a dream no one believes they can achieve. I’m trying to build a community where we don’t feel like that any more.”

Dan O’Brien, a recent recruit, has lately moved to London from Ireland – Yeboah was on a judging panel for a barber’s competition he had entered. “A lot of people thought that I’d come here and be lonely, but T and the team and even clients have been so friendly and helpful,” he says. “I’m learning so much about how to get better, not only as a barber but as a person.” 

S&G’s premises opened less than a year ago; construction is still in progress for an outdoor lounge complete with mural and fire pit. But even as the building work is being completed, Yeboah is thinking about how best to spread the community ethos beyond the shop. He mentions friend and client Tay Kabs, of @TheKabsFamily, who has built a following of 1.29mn on YouTube by what Yeboah describes as “creating his own world” – a funny yet tender snapshot of family life. It would be a dream for Style & Groom to have such reach, he says. 

What advice does Yeboah give to young men who want to emulate his success and that of many of his clients? “I never have the answers,” he says. “But what I do is try and show that whatever it is that you want to do, just do it. And if you fail, go again. And if you fail, go again until you get there.” 

Style & Groom, 121 Kentish Town Road, London NW1; styleandgroom.uk