Spotlight: Greasy Hands Barbershop, The Shoals, Alabama

After a spell working in Brooklyn as a barber, Austin Shirrey opened Greasy Hands Barbershop in Florence, Ala. in an area known as the Shoals, on October 1 this past year. “I wanted to bring my passion for men’s grooming back home to North Alabama,” says Shirrey. “The trade down here was dying out. I wanted to resurrect the tradition of going to the barbershop for the fellas in my town.”

Before barbering, Shirrey tried working in in a corporate 9-to-5 in New York after college in advertising sales. After those hectic days, “the barbershop was the place I went to totally chill out and laugh with my buds,” he says. Wanting to recapture that social respite, he went to barber school and made the jump.

Shirrey’s hometown area, commonly called “The Shoals” was also fast becoming an exciting place for hipsters seeking an alternative to New York, the Bay Area, LA and Chicago. “Made up of Muscle Shoals, Florence, Tuscumbia and Sheffield, the Shoals has a rich history in music, the arts, and now a few CFDA winning fashion designers,” he notes.

“I think Greasy Hands fits right in that vein of helping Shoals dudes be their most stylish self.”

Greasy Hands Barbershop 411 E College St Florence, AL 35661