Jacobs Barbers celebrates Basingstoke town centre expansion

Born and raised in Basingstoke and the surrounding areas, Jacob Hart-Gauntlett, 34, has been guiding youngsters towards successful careers in barbering for years, taking on apprentices to work in his three Jacobs Barbers shops.

His town centre branch, in Church Street, which opened in December 2023 and is co-owned by one of his former apprentices, Keith McDonald, 25, recently expanded from four seats to eight, with a celebratory event held on Saturday, October 11.

Jacob said: "We pride ourselves on using people who want to do an apprenticeship. You might not have the best grades, but you can start with us from the beginning, learn how to cut hair, and you could take it as far as you want.

Jacob Hart-Gauntlett and Keith McDonald outside the shop(Image: Newsquest)

"I did a barbering apprenticeship and it helped me massively learn basic life skills, from just making a cup of tea, to cutting someone's hair, to running one shop, to running another shop, to running three shops.

"And that's where we are at now, we just expanded the third shop from four chairs to eight."

Jacob, who began his career as an apprentice before briefly moving to Ibiza and working as a mobile barber, explained that he has always been optimistic about running a business and is planning on offering adult courses to help others learn the trade.

He said: "Mobile barbering was getting busier and busier for me, and I ended up opening a shop in Tadley.

"There was actually a massive gap in the market. We had a small shop in Tadley, then went next door and got a bigger shop. From there, we went to Bramley, and Keith was the manager of that store.

"We then kept Bramley, and saw an opportunity in Basingstoke, so me and Keith partnered up."

Ishaaq Ahmed with his fresh trim from Keith said: "I love it, I've been coming here for ages, best barber in town"(Image: Newsquest)

Jacob wants to use his platform to shine a positive light on the industry, having noticed negativity about barbershops online.

He said: "Barbers have got a bit of a bad name in Basingstoke at the moment, but we want to show the good we are doing. All the boys here are local, and we do apprenticeships with the young lads, and Keith has gone from apprentice to part-owner."

Keith, from Sherborne St John, explained how Jacob helped him: "I came as an apprentice and went from apprentice to a barber, gradually growing, getting taught by Jacob himself.

"Then the opportunity at Bramley happened, which was brilliant. Jacob was like, 'Look, I need a manager, someone that's going to run this shop.' So he put his trust in me from a young age, and he always told me, 'If you stick by me, the opportunity will come.'

"He took me to the solicitors and he showed me everything - there's so much more to running a business that I didn't know."

Celebratory cupcakes(Image: Newsquest)

Keith explained that chatting to different people every day has led him to have important conversations about mental health.

Because of conversations like these, Jacob and Keith are looking to partner with Andy's Man Club, a charity that offers peer-to-peer support groups.

Jacob added: "We want to try and do a little bit of mental health training for the boys, just so they can see warning signs.

"We need to start to really push that, because the busier that we're getting, the more people that we've got in here, they might need to know certain things that might help one person's life."