About
Built as a community, run as a craft
.Cartel is a barbershop and hair salon in SoHo, and a room people come back to whether or not they are due a cut. This is what we are trying to build, and what happens when you walk in.
- Open
- Seven days a week
- Find us
- 72 Wooster Street, Second Floor
New York, NY 10012
Barbers available every day of the week. Book online. Wooster Street, SoHo, New York.
01 / The vision
A barbershop should be somewhere you belong, not somewhere you queue
Every neighbourhood used to have a shop that doubled as a meeting point. Somewhere you could turn up without an appointment, sit down, and leave knowing more about the street than when you came in. Most of that has been optimised out.
We wanted it back, and we wanted it to work for everyone. That is why .Cartel is a barbershop and a salon in the same room: fades and beard work on one chair, color and scissor work on the next, and no assumption about who belongs in which. Holistic transformation from head to toe is the whole point, not a strapline.
Community is not a poster on the wall. It is the practical decisions underneath it. Staffing the floor every day of the week so shift workers are not excluded. Booking chairs with room around them so nobody is rushed. Writing down what you had so the next visit picks up where the last one finished.
We would rather be the shop you walk past three others to reach than the fastest chair on the block.
02 / What to expect
Your first visit, start to finish
No mystery and no upsell. Here is exactly how an appointment at .Cartel runs.
- Step 01
You get greeted, not processed
Nobody stands in the doorway working out whether they are in the right place. You get a hello, a seat and a straight answer about how long the wait actually is.
- Step 02
The consultation comes first
Before anything is switched on we talk about your hair, your growth pattern and how much time you genuinely want to spend on it each morning. If what you are asking for will not hold, we say so.
- Step 03
The work takes the time it takes
Chairs are booked so that the person in them is not being rushed toward the next one. Cut, beard and color get planned as one job rather than three appointments stitched together.
- Step 04
You leave able to repeat it
You go home knowing what was used, how it was used and when to come back. A shape you cannot recreate yourself is not a finished haircut.
03 / The team
Ask for the chair, and we will match you to the person
We list our chairs by what they actually do rather than by headshot, because the useful question when you book is which pair of hands you need. Tell us the job and we will put you with the right one.
Senior Barber
Fades, tapers and clipper work
Runs the clippers on skin fades, tapers and line-ups, and is the chair to ask for when you want a shape held tight between visits. Spends the first five minutes on the consultation and the rest making sure the grow-out still looks deliberate three weeks later.
Barber and Stylist
Scissor work, curls and texture
Works mostly with scissors on curls, waves and longer shapes, cutting for the way hair actually falls rather than how it behaves on the day. The one to book when you are growing something out and want it to look intentional the whole way through.
Colorist
Tone, grey blending and lived-in color
Handles everything from a quiet grey blend to a full lift, and will tell you honestly when a color is more upkeep than you want to sign up for. Plans the next two appointments before mixing the first bowl.
Front of House
The book and the room
Answers the booking requests, keeps the diary honest about wait times and looks after the room the rest of us are working in. If you are not sure which chair you need, this is the person to ask first.
Come and see it
Visit us in SoHo
You will find us at 72 Wooster Street, Second Floor, New York. Book a chair online, or come up and say hello. Somebody is on the floor every day of the week.
Seven days a week