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by Mike Beggs photography Steve Uhraney

Barber shops are back in style – but
with a contemporary spin.
For instance, at the new Eikonic
Academy of Barbering and Beauty,
720 Burnhamthorpe Rd. W., Unit 13,
today’s younger professionals
will feel equally comfortable getting
a traditional straight blade shave,
highlights, or “hand detailing”.
But in addition to being an upscale
salon/barber shop with 13 professional
hair cutters on staff, Eikonic
is also an accredited career
college offering full-time, and part-time
degrees in Barbering, and Hair
Styling (founded by master barber
Martin Truong, and his wife Jessica
Hoach).
“There has not been a barber-focused
college for the last 32 years in
Ontario,” Hoach says.
“In the Eighties, men started going
to salons and stopped going to barbers.”
Since 2010, they have been running
the Eikonic House of Barbers in Bramalea
City Centre, named among the
Top 200 best-managed hair salons in
Ontario for 2016 and 2017 by Salon
Today magazine.

Best Mississauga salon hairstylist barbershop Toronto hair school barber college Eikonic Academy
above (L-R) Terence Lai, Managing Partner, Jessica Hoach, Dean of Education/Owner, Martin Truong, Founder/Owner.

They’ve been seeking accreditation
as a career college for several
years.
“We went from the barber shop
to doing workshops, and realized
there’s a need for more formal education,”
she elaborates.
At this 6,800-square-foot facility,
they train their students for both
hands-on cutting, and business
skills – between the 42 barber stations
and 10 hair washing stations
up front, and the three lab spaces in
back.

“It’s very exciting. It has been a long time coming,” Truong says. “We had this idea from the very beginning.” “We have the shop in Brampton, but our main focus here is better education.” As a teen growing up in Mississauga, Truong, “loved to change the style and colour of my hair all the time”. He started out styling women’s hair, before moving into men’s grooming. “I didn’t know about barbering until somebody told me I’m a good barber,” he grins.
Eikonic Academy Founders Martin Truong Mississauga best salon barbershop Toronto best Hair school Best Barber College Eikonic Academy
above (L-R) Martin Truong founder of Eikonic Barbering instructs students Raquel Ellis and Triston Castell at Eikonics Academy of Barbering and Beauty.
At Eikonic they teach both classic barbering techniques, and “the fade” technique, now practiced by urban barbers (mostly using buzzers). “Urban barbers lack the skill set for a scissors cut,” he relates. “But once you know the fundamentals, then you can pick your brand of cutting.” In addition, Eikonic offers a variety of workshops – from Barber Navigation to Shaving, to Cosmotology, as well as presenting larger events like, “The British Barbers Are Coming” at University of Toronto at Mississauga.
One young student named Tristan came all the way from Ottawa to Eikonic, for a three-day workshop on Scissors Cutting. “I opened a barber shop in my basement a year ago. I came here to buy scissors, and found out about the workshop,” he relates. “I really liked the way they took the time to give me an education, before I made the purchase.” For more information, go online to www.eikonicacademy.com.