After its 77 years in business, Village Hairstyling evokes nostalgia for lots of Johnson Countians.
That includes Bill Koester. He spent more than two decades cutting hair at the Prairie Village barber shop. And when the shop closed its doors earlier this year, he wasn’t ready to stop.
So he didn’t. Instead, Koester opened his own shop, taking some of his fellow barbers with him. He and his wife, Robyn Koester, opened the shop as Old Town Barber in Lenexa in August.
Old Town Barber opened at 7793 Quivira Road
- The barber shop took over a space at the Lenexa Plaza shopping center, near the Snack Bar and Fronteras Mexican Restaurant.
- A tax service previously occupied that space.
- Old Town Barber is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Old Town Barber’s style is “tried and true”
Koester said the barbers at Old Town Barber tend to offer a range of services, from traditional styles to more “trendy” ones.
“We’re pretty much an old-fashioned barber shop, and we are tried and true to that,” Koester said. “We do a lot of old-fashioned (styles), plus modern-day styles.”
Though the space itself is new, customers can expect to see familiar faces in Lenexa. Three of Village Hairstyling’s longtime barbers followed Koester to the new shop.
“Everything that we did over there, we’re trying to keep intact over here,” he said. “We’re hoping we can start another long tradition over here, like we had over there.”
The new shop has nods to the old one’s history
The walls of the Lenexa shop are adorned with photos of many people who sat in or stood at chairs at Village Hairstyling — including former owner James “Windy” Gifford, who took over the shop from Don Moore in 1998.
The history isn’t just on the walls though. It’s also in the chairs. Koester said that when Old Town Barber came to Lenexa, many of the staff’s former clients came with them.
“We’re fortunate enough that our customers are following us over,” he said. “They’ve been with us for a lot of years, and they’re continuing to stay with us.”
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