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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife business owners Steve Payne and James McGaughey never pictured seeing Ragged Ass Barbers opening across the country when they bought Henry's Barber Shop and opened the new age business two years ago, with friend Craig Zamonsky.

Original Ragged Ass Barbers Steve Payne and James McGaughey are moving ahead with expansion plans at the downtown barbershop, after co-founder Craig Zamonsky quit, opening his own Ragged Ass Barbers shop in Regina. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo

The small downtown Nunasi Building barbershop outgrew its space immediately through popularity, and all three agreed that expansion was in order, but not necessarily outside the city whose Ragged Ass Road inspired the name of the business.

"It's not what we really wanted for our shop. It wasn't really in the cards for us," said McGaughey. "We wanted to create something here and not to revolutionize the barber industry, we just wanted a cool environment for locals here in Yellowknife. We weren't out to become the McDonald's of barbershops."

Last fall, Zamonsky quit, on less than friendly terms with Payne, and relocated to Regina, handing all his shares in the young Yellowknife barbershop to McGaughey, according to the Yellowknife business owners.

In January, the estranged co-founder opened his own Ragged Ass Barbers in Regina.

Payne and McGaughey found out about the Regina Ragged Ass Barbers through word of mouth, and were not surprised that Zamonsky had set up shop, but were surprised to learn he was using the Yellowknife business name, they said.

"We're actually quite flattered that he chose to use the name, not that it has any relevance anywhere else," McGaughey said. "Maybe at Mars Yellowknife. It belongs here."

Zamonsky said the name has done well for his business in Regina.

"Clients love the name and I`m proud to tell them where it originated from," he said from his new Cathedral Village business.

It was a hard decision to leave the city, he added, although he is glad to be closer to family.

"It was a very hard decision to leave and start all over again, which ended up costing me my best friend (McGaughey), a business with a wonderful clientele, and the most beautiful city in Canada," he told Yellowknifer.

Payne and McGaughey now plan to change the name of the Yk business to The Original Ragged Ass Barbers.

"We don't really need the name to get people to come here," McGaughey said.

While the business nearly unravelled when Zymosky left, leaving the business short a full-time barber to serve the growing shop, they got through the adjustment period and are now excited about the shop's expansion plans.

They have since trained an apprentice barber and have another full-time barber from Manitoba slated to join the original Ragged Ass Barbers, which will make it four barbers at the shop.

The shop is undergoing renovations that will roughly double the floor size from its former 350 square-foot space and by the time the renovations are complete, the shop will have five service chairs, up from the current three.

Zamonsky is also reporting growth at his Ragged Ass Barbers in Regina, which opened with no clientele and is on track to have all four chairs full by the end of the year, he said.

Payne said he will likely never see the new Ragged Ass Barbers.

"I have no reason to go to Regina," he said. "They're doing their thing, we're doing ours."

Zamonsky also hopes to open another shop in Saskatoon, next summer.

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