Feel good and look good; Join the Back Alley Barber Club

If he knows your favorite musician, Ty Neighbors will try to have them on the radio when you stop by his new Huntingburg barber shop, Back Alley Barber Club, for your appointment.

You’ll also be able to grab a cup of his personal roast of coffee from St. Anthony-based roaster Stay Brewed or a Sprecher Root Beer from his mini-fridge before leaning back in his barber chair for a haircut and hot towel shave.

The 20-year-old knows how to make you feel at home; it’s all part of an experience meant to brighten your day.

“I mean, you could be here for 45 minutes to an hour depending on what’s going on,” he explained. “My goal is to make you as comfortable as possible.”

It’s by design. If you are happy with the unique experience and he makes you feel good about how you look, you’ll probably come back.

As a sophomore at Jasper High School, Ty’s path to opening his business began with a pandemic. Remember those home haircuts; that’s when he began cutting his dad’s hair. “Everyone was kind of doing their own hair anyway,” he said. “So I picked it up and fell in love with it.”

As he considered the career path and dreamed with his dad, the pair discussed names for the potential barbershop he would create. “The original name was going to be Neighbors Barbershop,” Ty said.

But the pair returned to a joke from those alleyway haircuts Ty used to give his dad, Kurt. “I was practicing fading on my dad and he said something along the lines of, “Nowadays, if you want a haircut, you have to go to some weird back alley to do it,'” he said.

According to Ty, he and his dad will run a joke as far as they can but when it came time to choose a name, Back Alley Barber stuck. Ty preferred “club” over “shop” because he wants his clients to feel like they are part of a community.

You can see the new members on the club’s Facebook page here.

After graduating from Jasper High School, Ty headed to Rogers Academy of Hair Design in Evansville. After graduating, he returned to the area and began building up a steady list of clients renting space chair space in local shops.

About six weeks ago, Ty learned of an open space that could become his clubhouse. With a few weeks of frantic remodeling to turn a storage room attached to Maxey’s Barbershop into his new shop, Ty opened on April 2.

The move is important for him. He likes Huntingburg’s dedication to small businesses and the shop allows him an opportunity to grow his business.

“I’ve always wanted to do something to give that feeling to the community,” Ty explained. “This felt like the most direct path to achieve that.”

And, he’s doing so by providing something he loves and appreciates to his clients.

He specializes in modern men’s haircuts–sorry, ladies, he said he can only offer a trims–and loves to sculpt beards and provide straight razor shaves topped off with a hot towel. He knows how good this makes him feel–confident and ready to attack the day.

“I feel like my job is to help other people do that, too,” he said. “Give yourself the gift of confidence.”

You can set up an appointment through his Facebook page. Or by calling 812-639-3955.