In our day and age, such establishments often serve as a locale for social interaction pertaining to contemporary issues. The following list examines barbers who traded in their shears for unspeakable acts of violence as well as unscrupulous patrons on a downward spiral of lunacy.
10 Contaminated Tools
On a daily basis, hundreds of citizens throughout India are unknowingly exposing themselves to serious infections like AIDS and hepatitis B and C via unsanitary roadside barbers. In a country where there is no system or organization to check safety protocols, thousands of barbers use just one razor or blade on a large number of customers. At railway stations, bus stands, and even government hospitals, infected razors are continuously being used without the slightest bit of concern from the barber or the client receiving a shave. Upon questioning one barber about his knowledge pertaining to the transmission of HIV and AIDS, he erroneously responded by saying, “These things happen because of wrong acts and not because of shaving. If we will think that much, what will we eat.” Nigeria has also seen its share of unsanitary barber practices. According to a recent study, a majority of professional barbers in the African nation serve as a potential core group for indirect HIV transmission “through the use of non-potent disinfectants and improper handling of sharp instruments.”[1] Case in point: The study found that kerosene has become a popular disinfectant on barbers’ instruments even though the solvent cannot inactivate HIV or other infectious diseases. This renders its use a mere senseless placebo.
9 Barbie Barber
Australia’s famed adult nightclub, The Vault On Ruthven, recently underwent a $2.5 million makeover on a new and improved interior that was once home to the Commonwealth Bank. Much of the construction expense went into transforming the old bank vault into an unexpected attraction—a nude barbershop. For voyeur gentlemen seeking a fresh shave or cut, they now have the unusual luxury of being snipped and trimmed by Breanna Francis (aka “Barbie Barber”). The corset-wearing, topless hairdresser prides herself on her work and states, “I get a lot more money doing this than just hairdressing and more money than I would just stripping.” Interestingly enough, the barbershop—just like the entirety of the strip club—is upper echelon in terms of class as opposed to the expected, seedy appearance that one might expect. In fact, the owners have taken great pride in the newly transformed vault. It is rightfully named “Don’s Barbershop,” an ode to the foreman who oversaw the entire construction. Sadly, Don kicked the bucket prior to completion of the nude barbershop that he so proudly envisioned. In his honor, a grandiose plaque outside the door of the risque establishment has the inscription, “established 1937,” a creepy reminder of the year that Don was born.[2]
8 Degenerate Barber
What was supposed to be a typical trim in a Spring, Texas, barbershop took an unexpected turn into perversion in August 2017. An unidentified mother was silently questioning why her children’s barber, 32-year-old Jeremiah Siqueido, was incessantly excusing himself to go to the back room of the shop. Though one could simply assume that Siqueido had irregular bowel movements, the frequent breaks became not only a nuisance but oddly troublesome for the young mother of three. As she followed him to the rear of the store, the mother’s unremitting sixth sense was visually confirmed. Siqueido was caught with his pants down, masturbating while staring at her children from the shadows of the room. “She was very, very explicit with what she saw with both of his hands and where they were positioned and what she actually saw. That was a big factor in our DA taking charges,” explained Harris County Constable Mark Herman following Siqueido’s arrest for indecent exposure. It may come as no surprise that the child predator has had previous run-ins with the law. A decade earlier, Siqueido was sentenced to five years in prison after he poured boiling hot water on a two-year-old child. The young girl, whose mother was dating Siqueido at the time, suffered “third-degree burns from head to toe all over her body.”[3] To date, the sick and twisted barber awaits trial while being held on a $5,000 bond.
7 A Bad Day At The Office
The last thing expected by Ismael Dushan when he entered Levels Barbershop in Brooklyn in May 2018 was that he would be leaving the establishment in an ambulance. Tensions arouse mid-cut when Dushan began to complain about the trim he was receiving. The 33-year-old also refused to leave a tip, which further enraged his barber. While his customer’s back was turned, the irascible coiffeur shoved the patron with such force that he was launched through the front window of the shop. Seeing that his customer’s face was now ripped opened by shards of glass, the devious stylist chose not to wait around for police questioning. Interestingly enough, not a single employee at Levels could recall the barber’s name or how to reach him even though he had been employed at the barbershop for some time. To date, the fiery Brooklyn barber remains at large.[4] In spite of such injurious rage in Brooklyn, nothing compares to the ire of a Queens barber who used his scissors as a tool for murder. Following a scuffle that broke out at Select Stylez, 34-year-old Cedric Simpson repeatedly plunged his shears into the stomach of 19-year-old Carl Richardson in 2014. According to police reports, Simpson became incensed after Richardson, a regular customer, inquired about a $50 debt that the barber owed him. Simpson was formally charged with murder after it was announced that Richardson was pronounced dead on arrival at Franklin General Hospital.
6 Buckets Of Urine
In the Emabutweni suburb of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, sits a barbershop whose owner had quite a peculiar dilemma on his hands. For months, barber Mgadi Ndlovu had been robbed of his peace as well as his clientele, all thanks to welder Khumbulani Ndlovu who worked nearby. For reasons that are unclear, Khumbulani developed a penchant for entering Mgadi’s shop with the sole purpose of urinating on anything and everything, including the barber’s tools. Mgadi said: He sometimes comes to my workplace just to urinate in my shop. Whenever I ask him why he is behaving in such a manner, he would then start shouting and insulting me using vulgar language. At one time, he even came to the shop and took one of the buckets which we use for other purposes and urinated inside. When I asked him why he was doing that, he threatened to splash me with urine. After countless golden drenches turned the barbershop into an odorous nightmare reminiscent of a nursing home, Mgadi decided to take Khumbulani to court. Citing a loss of customers due to the welder’s bizarre antics, Mgadi also claimed that Khumbulani made several unspecified threats against his life. As expected, Khumbulani was arrested and made to pay a fine with the understanding that he must not communicate with or threaten Mgadi or enter Mgadi’s place of work. Khumbulani was also stripped of all barbershop bathroom privileges.[5]
5 When You Gotta Go
On a quiet Wednesday afternoon in Columbus, Georgia, in 2016, customers at the Victory Barber Shop got more than they bargained for when Kenyatta Samar Griffin casually strolled into view. Standing in front of the window where he could be seen clearly by the shop’s clients, the 42-year-old calmly dropped his pants, exposed himself, and proceeded to defecate all over the sidewalk. When he was done relieving himself, Griffin pulled up his pants and carried on with his day. An officer on routine patrol who had witnessed Griffin’s fecal work of art immediately arrested the inebriated man for public indecency. When questioned about the poop-covered sidewalk, Griffin claimed that the feces belonged to someone else.[6] If that wasn’t enough to turn one’s stomach, an unsatisfied customer in Shandong, China, expressed his disdain toward his barber in the most romantic way—by throwing bags of feces at the barbershop’s door. The odoriferous hobby became a daily ritual for the rancorous nuisance who was eventually tracked down after police viewed the shop’s surveillance tape. In the end, the man was fined 500 yuan for his poop-flinging adventures and sentenced to nine days in “detention.”
4 Smokey Was Smoked
A long-running feud between an antagonistic resident, Heather Lemieux, and William Whitson of Smooth Cuts Barber Shop viciously spilled out into a Massachusetts street in 2015. After months of shouting matches, Lemieux carelessly continued her deliberate provocation of parading her pit bull, Smokey, around Whitson’s shop despite his pleas to stop. One afternoon, however, Lemieux’s antagonistic ways came full circle when her intimidating four-legged friend attacked a smaller dog in front of Whitson’s barbershop. As the small dog’s owner cried for help, Whitson sprang into action. In spite of restraining Smokey by placing him in a headlock, the barber took his gallant efforts a step further and began stabbing the dog in the shoulder, neck, and chest as if he were slaying a werewolf. Upon questioning, Whitson claimed that the pit bull bit his right hand and would not let go, prompting the stabbing in self-defense. Nonetheless, authorities rejected his narrative and charged him with animal cruelty and assault with a dangerous weapon. They also issued a temporary order of suspension for his master barber license.[7] Court records indicate that Whitson, a registered Level 3 sex offender, had a history of complaints pertaining to late-night disturbances outside his local barbershop. After serving 21 months and four days, he was released from prison still irked about his unjust sentence.
3 Temperamental Patrons And Barbers
Desiring to look prim and proper for the holidays, a 22-year-old man in Madison, Wisconsin, stopped by Ruby’s Salon for a haircut. During the cut, however, the unidentified customer kept “fidgeting” in his seat and moving his head, which caused great aggravation for the barber and owner, Khaled A. Shabani. As opposed to voicing his annoyance like a sane individual, Shabani did what any frustrated lunatic holding shears would do. He twisted the man’s ear and then “snipped” off the tip. With the customer in a state of shock and confusion, Shabani used clippers to shave off a strip of hair down the center of the man’s head. Authorities arrested Shabani on charges of mayhem and disorderly conduct while armed. They also stated that the botched haircut left the man “looking a bit like Larry from The Three Stooges.”[8] Such insanity pales in comparison to the wrath of 40-year-old Trenton barber James Dillard. While Dillard cut the hair of a client, the two men began to argue, prompting the customer to end the session early. As opposed to leaving in a relatively civilized manner, the unidentified patron slammed the front door to the Beauty and the Beast Barber Shop, causing the glass to shatter. In response, Dillard confronted the man in the street, where a struggle ensued. In the heat of the moment, the barber channeled his inner Mike Tyson and bit the 24-year-old man’s ear in half. In the end, the customer was rushed to a hospital while Dillard was jailed on charges of aggravated assault.
2 Demon Barber
Lloyd Dobrodumow, the owner of Jack’s barbershop, is quite the peculiar fellow who proudly touts himself as “The Demon Barber.” Inspired by the popular musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Dobrodumow’s fascination with the barbarous character became all too real for horrified Newcastle residents who witnessed a man burst out of the barbershop with his throat slit. By all appearances, it seemed as if detectives had an open-and-shut case. Dobrodumow, who has a history of domestic violence and 17 convictions, was booked on one charge of wounding with intent to commit grievous bodily harm. Much to the surprise of mortified residents, further investigation revealed that the victim, Robert Smith, was the instigator. According to reports, a fight broke out between the two men after a belligerent Smith began throwing beer cans at Dobrodumow. Smith also threatened to kill Dobrodumow and steal his dog. Then Smith called Dobrodumow’s wife a “slut.” The barber threw a punch, not realizing that he was still holding a razor in his hand. Despite a 10-centimeter (4 in) wound to Smith’s throat that severed a main muscle and a saliva gland, witnesses reported that Smith began demanding £10,000 to “make it all go away.” At Dobrodumow’s trial, Judge Tom Little stated that Dobrodumow had shown “genuine, tearful remorse” and believed the injury was not intentional. The Demon Barber was subsequently given a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation.[9]
1 Revenge
On the night of February 5, 2015, a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt walked into a packed barbershop in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, and carried out a horrific massacre that spawned a series of revenge killings. On the orders of heroin kingpin Tevaughn “Big Baby” Darling, Douglas Shine Jr. opened fire with two handguns inside Chalk Linez barbershop.[10] Shine shot Walter Barfield 19 times, including two execution-style shots to his skull. Lying dead in a pool of blood beside Barfield, who was the target of the massacre, was Brandon White and barber William Gonzalez, an innocent bystander who was gunned down beside his barber’s chair. In the months that followed, a series of revenge shootings were carried out throughout Ohio. One of the perpetrators of the killing spree was 24-year-old Marcus Ladson, who executed Curtis Avent III outside a bar merely weeks after the Chalk Linez shooting. Ladson, whose cousin Brandon had been murdered at the barbershop, mercilessly continued exacting revenge on anyone believed to have been a conspirator in the massacre. After being arrested red-handed at the scene of his last shooting, Ladson was found guilty of murder and 25 other felonies. He was sentenced to 127 years to life in prison. Douglas Shine Jr., who carried out the triple homicide, was convicted of aggravated murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Meanwhile, “Big Baby” Darling, the man who orchestrated the barbershop killing, is currently serving a 14-year sentence on drug charges. Chalk Linez barbershop never reopened. Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.
