Tennessee couple opens barbershop after being inspired by a book

FORT SCOTT, Ks. — Inspiration can come from anywhere, it could be art or even nature, but for one Tennessee couple it was something a little different.

“I actually just got my barbershop license on Monday of this week and I was like, ‘Hey, let’s throw something together for the New Year,’ so this is our first real official day open,” says Matt Park, owner of Hare & Crow, “I mean we’ve had several people come in, I’ve been cutting since we opened, since before we opened, honestly someone was waiting for me.”

Before opening “Hare & Crow” barber shop, Matt Park spent 15 years of his life working in coffee shops, even opening his own back in 2016 in Tennessee.
However that all changed when Park and his wife decided to close up shop following some shocking news.

“We had a loss of a loved one that we wanted to be back in the midwest where we grew up,” says Park. “My wife is originally from St. Louis but her grandmother was born and raised here and she spent most of the summers in her life coming to visit her grandma, and there was something about Fort Scott that made her want to come back.”

Matt was looking for a change of pace himself, and he soon got it thanks to “Jayber Crow.”
The story of a barber in the fictional town of Port William, Kentucky gave Park a new piece of inspiration for the next step in his life.

“There was something about his story in that book that made me think ‘Barbering could be for me,’ meeting different people, getting to know their stories, their life, was something that I really wanted to do,” says Park.

And now Park has created a place for him and other local barbers, to make their own stories.

“I wanted to be in a small town and be part of the downtown economy, so starting a small business on the main street was kind of a dream,” says Park. “I learned a lot of things the hard way and I’ve come a long way from that.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *