Talking Heads Barbershop in Asbury Park: Born of cigars and Auburn football

Brett Kimmins

July 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM·7 min read

ASBURY PARK - When he was younger, John Hawksby watched his brother Anthony open a cigar shop in Auburn, Alabama, called Little Anthony’s and instantly fell in love with the idea of being an entrepreneur.

“He was very friendly with people around the town,” Hawksby said. “It opened up my mind to that kind of life. Auburn is a big football town and after the games, people would flock to the cigar shop and interact with one another. It became a local spot for the townspeople to hang out and have a good time. I never wanted to leave and it really gave me a glimpse of what It was like to have a family-owned business. It played a big role in what I do now.”

What he does now is run Talking Heads Barbershop, located at the intersection of Mattison Avenue and Bond Street.

Hawksby grew up in a family of printing pressmen, and he expected to go in that direction.

“My dad and my brother both worked for the printing press,” Hawksby said. “After I realized that college wasn’t for me following one semester at West Virginia University, my dad told me I had to get a job. He basically told me that I would be following in his footsteps. As I was getting into the union and it was shaping up to be a smart choice, my brother told me that I wouldn't last too long in the printing press business because the technology itself was advancing to the point that physical people would not be needed as they would be replaced by machines.

Allenhurst barber learned early lesson:Cutting hair beats hauling cast iron pipes

“I would love to say it was my idea, but it was actually my brother, Michael, that suggested that both he and I become barbers,” Hawksby said. “In his mind, he figured that we could both open up our own place. He never followed through with it because he was making good money doing construction work. I sat on it for a year or so because, at that time, to be a barber, you were required to go to cosmetology school. There was no barber school back then and that was my only option. I ultimately decided to do it and I became very good at it.”

'If this was my hair, how would I want to cut and style it?'

Hawksby said he took to cutting hair easily.

“I don’t want to use the term 'God-given talent,' but I knew right from wrong when it came to cutting hair,” Hawksby said. “It definitely came from inside and I was very methodical about my own haircuts. It seemed to stem from there and I kept it up at it all the way through my schooling days until I graduated. This was my starting point and I continued to progress from that point the best way I knew how.

“The fact that I was so careful with the way I got my own hair cut transcended into the way I liked to cut hair for my clients,” Hawksby said. “Some people just breeze through a haircut. That was not the way I wanted to go about it. I pretended that every haircut I gave was like my own hair being cut and I thought, 'If this was my hair, how would I want to cut and style it?' It was very personal and I always had the best interest of the client in mind.”

Looking good:At Boho Hair Salon in Asbury Park, you get more than a haircut

After 10 months of cosmetology school, Hawksby graduated and began his career.

“Even before I got my license, I was allowed to cut hair with my permit,” Hawksby said. “I tried my hand at a local barber shop, Joe’s Barber Shop, and even though I was still confident in my abilities, I was a little rough around the edges. I worked with a woman there, Jodi Wittenburg, who took me under her wing after she could see that I was just getting started. After watching her technique very closely, I started to really get good at it after at least a month.

“I was doing good work at that point,” Hawksby said. “She was a no-nonsense, extremely fast and efficient hair stylist and I learned a lot of my technique from her expert tutelage. She was the busiest barber in the shop and I looked up to her as an older sister because she looked out for me and guided me along a straight and narrow path to me achieving my own destiny. I was so glad she showed me the ropes. She won’t admit it, but she taught me a lot.”

'I had accomplished something for myself'

After jumping back and forth to different barbershops and trying to perfect his technique for three years, Hawksby decided to focus to creating his own shop.

“I was unsure of where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do,” Hawksby said. “I learned a lot about cutting hair from all the jobs I had ever worked. I decided to choose what was most important to me and I became all about the job and sharpening my skills, so that I could be the best of myself. I did a lot of thinking about how I wanted to pursue my career and how I would be successful with my life. I decided that I never wanted to work for anyone else ever again.

“I decided to strike out on my own,” Hawksby said. “I found a spot in Asbury Park and I opened up a little barbershop off of Bond Street. I started out by myself with one other barber working part time. It was awesome just looking back at it and remembering not being afraid to really achieve something with this business. It was the same feeling I got remembering being at my brother’s cigar shop as a kid. I was happy and I had accomplished something for myself just like he did at that age. I reveled in the moment. Failure was not an option.”

Hawksby opened his first location on Bond Street in 2015, moving to his current location this past February.

“We are growing into it,” Hawksby said. “We have six chairs open and we are always looking to do our best work with all of the talent and hardworking barbers we have available to us. It’s all about doing the best work that we possibly can and just excelling at what we do, and that’s cutting hair and making our customers happy.”

As far as haircuts go, Hawksby does most everything that his customers could ask him to do.

Ghost Town: Asbury Park vintage shop is a place where the past never dies

“We are extremely versatile,” Hawksby said. “That’s what is so cool about our shop. The barbers can cut like they are artists and really give great quality haircuts. They dress how they want, they talk how they want and most importantly, they cut how they want. So far, we haven’t had any complaints and that’s just fine with us.”

Hawksby believes his future is bright.

“I’m really focused on building out the shop a little more,” Hawksby said. “I am also seriously thinking about increasing the staff to eight barbers. We have been through the hardest of times and we made it through with arms and legs intact, so we will continue to survive and thrive to our heart’s content.”

Crooked Crown: Jail time led to life change, Asbury Park clothing line