Walk-ins welcome · East Village · Open until 8 tonight
Home / The shop

Two chairs
and a sign.

Rook & Razor opened in 2014 in a storefront so narrow you had to turn sideways to pass the waiting bench. We're wider now. Not much else changed.

How it started

A trade,
not a trend.

Marcus Rook learned to cut in his uncle's shop in Bed-Stuy, sweeping floors at eleven and holding clippers at fifteen. Twenty years later he took over a shuttered dry cleaner on East 6th, kept the tin ceiling, and put in two chairs.

The idea was simple and hasn't moved: hire barbers who take the work seriously, charge a fair price, and never make anyone feel like they asked for the wrong thing. No membership tiers. No product pushing. If you want the same cut you've had for fifteen years, that's a good cut.

Detail of the shop interior
The long version

Twelve years,
abridged.

2014 - The dry cleaner

Marcus signs a five-year lease on a 400-square-foot storefront. Two chairs, one mirror salvaged from a closing shop on Delancey, a sign painted by a neighbor.

2016 - Danny joins

A skin-fade specialist walks in for a cut and leaves with a chair. The waitlist goes from days to weeks.

2019 - The wall comes down

The unit next door empties out. We take it, knock through, and go from two chairs to six without changing a thing about how we work.

2021 - The apprenticeship

We start training one apprentice a year, paid, from the neighborhood. Three of them are now cutting full-time - two of them here.

2026 - Still here

Same block, same tin ceiling, roughly forty thousand haircuts later.

House rules

What we're
strict about.

Everything else is negotiable.

The consultation

Every cut starts with two minutes of actually talking about it. We'd rather ask three questions than guess once.

Your time

If we're running more than ten minutes behind, you get a text before you leave the house. Waiting rooms are for dentists.

No upselling

Nobody here works on product commission. If we recommend something, it's because we use it.

Behind the chairs

Six barbers.

Book by name or let us match you - every chair here has earned its spot.

Barber portrait

Marcus Rook

Owner · Scissor work, classic taper · 22 years
Barber portrait

Danny Vega

Skin fades, beard architecture · 11 years
Barber portrait

Ana Reyes

Textured cuts, curls, grown-out shapes · 8 years
Barber portrait

Sol Whitaker

Straight razor, hot towel service · 15 years

Come see
the room.

We're on East 6th between First and Second. Push the door, it sticks a little.

Book a chair →