Twenty-five years, one street corner
Yusuf Demir opened the shop's first chair in 1999, a few months after arriving in Utrecht. He'd learned the trade from his uncle in Istanbul and figured a neighbourhood like Lombok — dense, mixed, loyal to its local shops — was exactly the kind of place a barbershop could last.
It did. The shop has grown from one chair to four, added a manager, trained two more barbers, and kept the same walk-in policy the whole way through.
Yusuf opens Barbershop Lombok's first chair on Kanaalstraat, fresh off the boat from Istanbul by way of his uncle's shop.
A second chair goes in as the neighbourhood — and the Saturday queue out the door — keeps growing.
First proper renovation: new chairs, new tiling, same address, same owner.
Elif, Yusuf's daughter, joins to run the front of house and keep the books straight.
Bilal joins as the shop's second full-time barber, bringing a sharper edge to the fades.
Sami joins from barber academy, rounding the team out to four chairs.
Barbershop Lombok marks twenty-five years on the same street corner.