Chris Avanti, owner of Atelier barbershop in Oak Lawn, wanted to create a place where everyone felt welcome. (Photo by Victor Escandon)

Everyone is welcome at this high-end Oak Lawn barbershop

Alex Gonzalez | Contributing Writer
alexgonzalez@localprofile.com

With barbershop culture re-emerging in the realm of men’s grooming, men of all backgrounds, races and sexual orientations are looking for spots where they can get trimmed and faded. One of the newest shops in Oak Lawn, located at 3409 Cedar Springs Road, is Atelier, an elevated barbershop with luxury salon amenities. Owner Chris Avanti says Atelier cultivates a safe, inclusive environment for everyone who walks through the door.

Even though he is now one of Dallas’ most sought-out barbers, Avanti’s path to success hasn’t been a smooth one. Before becoming a barber, Avanti had dropped out of high school, not knowing what was next for him.

“I dropped out because I couldn’t focus,” Avanti recalls. “I didn’t feel challenged in school. I was really into art, and I would draw on a daily basis. After dropping out of high school, I went into the retail world, and I really couldn’t hold a job for more than a month. I couldn’t be told what to do.”
Avanti eventually enrolled in hair school around the age of 20. He paid his way through school by working on cars, as he originally planned to be a mechanic. A week after graduating hair school, Avanti welcomed his first son.

“That put me in the mode where I needed a job,” Avanti says. “No more bullshitting around.”

Avanti had searched for jobs doing women’s hair but had no luck landing one. He had cut men’s hair throughout high school, so he eventually decided to stick to what he knew.

Avanti started working in a barbershop where, he says, he made “next to nothing.” But over the course of a year, he built a clientele then decided to open his first shop. That was in Cedar Hill in 2011.

But that venture didn’t work out as planned, because most of his business partners were set in their comfort zones in Oak Cliff. So he left the Cedar Hill shop and opened two barbershops in Bishop Arts: Kings Club and Members Only, the latter of which generated controversy with a mural of Lee Harvey Oswald on the side of the building.

“A lot of people don’t know Lee Harvey Oswald lived two blocks from that shop,” Avanti says. “I knew there was going to be controversy behind it.

We were about a week in, and somebody made a negative comment on the Facebook page. That spiked the news interest.

“I walked into work one day and [Fox 4 News] was there waiting for me and asked ‘Can you do an interview in 30 minutes?’”

Within an hour after the Fox 4 News interview, both NBC 5 and WFAA showed up to talked to Avanti, who insisted that the mural was simply art and that art is meant to evoke emotions, whether they be good or bad.

Many people, though, weren’t having it.

“They kept saying that I was glorifying [Oswald],” Avanti says. “And I said, ‘You know, the Texas theater still sells memorabilia with Oswald’s picture on it, right?’ They have JFK tours that now come to see this mural and come to [Oswald’s] house. But the difference between me and them is that I don’t make money off of this, [and] they do.”

At Atelier, Avanti has created a luxury barbershop environment devoid of the toxic masculinity often found in more “traditional” barbershops.

“The number one statement we get is, ‘I felt like I walked into L.A.’ Or ‘I felt like I walked into New York.’ That’s what I wanted,” Avanti says.

“Everything here is custom made, down to the barber chairs, down to the mirrors. You can’t buy this at IKEA. Everything’s been custom made.”

Overall, Avanti is proud to own a business where anyone can come in and expect to feel welcome and accepted.

“I wanted a place where everybody could feel comfortable, no matter if you were from the LGBTQ community or not,” Avanti says. “I want everybody to be united as one. Come in; enjoy some beer and wine; get your hair cut, and have a good time.”