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The It List
A.K.'s salon makes the cut
By Michael A. Mohammed
Published March 2, 2007
You know IT when you find IT: It's something unique, something out of the way, something you could find only at one place in the Brandon and South Shore area. Send your picks, finds and hidden treasures to brandon@sptimes.com. Moving to a new place - finding an apartment, a doctor, a supermarket. All that stuff? Easy. Tracking down a good haircut joint? Not easy. For a new South Tampa resident looking to make an impression at an internship, Cappelli's $35 haircut seemed smart. Until I realized I'd waited seven weeks for my next chop, trying to stretch the expensive coif far too long. A Brandon colleague gives me a card for "Andrew, International Hair Designer," with writing in English and Korean. I arrive at A.K. Barber & Salon for a 5 o'clock appointment. Owner Andrew Kim ushers me into the chair. He confuses me at first, by clipping gingerly at my shaggy mop, running his fingers through it. "I have to get a feel for your hair," he explains. We talk, his voice pinched by a South Korean accent. He moved to New York before starting high school, then learned design at Brooklyn's elite Pratt Institute. The grueling hours made him reconsider, and he decided to take after the hairdressers he saw at fashion shows during his days in graphic design. "People don't get haircuts after a certain time of day," he said. Soon he has finished my cut. He rinses and shampoos the clippings from my hair, and for the first time I'm not itchy after a cut. My hair is perfectly shorn, symmetrical, the sideburns even. He takes notes on the back of a card - "top finger cut, side 3 to 2" - so he knows what to do next time. It's $12, he tells me, but first-time referrals get $5 off; $7 for a haircut on par with Cappelli's. I hand him a ten and a five. He tells me he doesn't take tips bigger than $3. I shrug and pocket the five. It'll cover the Crosstown tolls when I drive from South Tampa for next month's cut. Michael A. Mohammed can be reached at mmohammed@sptimes.com or 813 226-3404. A.K. Barber & Salon 648 Oakfield Drive, Brandon Call (813) 731-6270. Men's haircuts $12, $15 with shampoo. Women's haircuts $15 and up.
[Last modified March 1, 2007, 12:06:02]
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