SIDNEY – A recently opened barbershop called CoJo Cuts is breathing new life into the barbershop experience in Sidney.
CoJo Cuts is owned and operated by Sidney native Cory Shrewsbury, also known as CoJo. Shrewsbury became passionate about cutting hair during visits to the Down Town Barber Shop, owned by Andy Steenrod, and started cutting hair in high school as a hobby after learning more about the profession from Steenrod.
“That kind of piqued my interest, and from there I would ask him (Steenrod) little bits of information while he was cutting my hair or just here and there, and that’s when I thought ‘what a cool job would it be to just hang out with a bunch of guys and talk sports all day’ and you get to make people feel better about themselves,” Shrewsbury said.
When Shrewsbury graduated high school, he joined the Army, and after the Army, he became a manufacturing engineer after also considering becoming a police officer.
“I worked at Precision Aero in Troy, and then during COVID I lost my job, and that’s where I had that epiphany where I’m like ‘I’m 30 years old, I’m good at what I do but I don’t like it, it’s hard every day’ and every day when I got up to go to work I was like ‘ugh, here we go again’ but I had always wanted to be a barber, I just didn’t think barbers made any money, and I was like well, if it was just me, I would be OK with a pay cut, but because I have two kids, I can’t make them suffer just because I would rather do something else,” Shrewsbury said. “So, I became friends with a few barbers, and they were like ‘man, we make just as much as you do if not more.’ So, I started looking into it and I was like well if I can make 80% of what I was making and do what I love, I’m an idiot to not go for it.”
The business opened on Sept. 20 with barbers Lorenzo Taborn and Cooper Collingsworth doing business in the shop while Shrewsbury finishes school at Ron West Barber College in Dayton. The shop has room for three barbers to work there currently, but eventually, the shop will have five barbers who have already been selected. Customers have been plentiful so far with the help of 1,000 likes and followers on Facebook, 71,000 followers on TikTok, word of mouth and the current barbers’ reputations in and out of the hair-cutting business.
Some of the main features Shrewsbury wanted to include in his shop were a bright space with a modern feel, detailed and clean cuts, and the possibility for walk-in customers. To add to the welcoming set-up, there is also a coffee station for guests to enjoy.
“The reason why I didn’t go cut in another shop is because I wanted to focus more on a full-service barbershop; more detailed, use enhancements, straight razor for everything, more stuff like that, and not focus so much on the volume, like how much speed that’s going out,” Shrewsbury said. “One of the big things that was really important to me was to make sure that the shop was able to take walk-ins. Around here, there’s really not any shops that take walk-ins.”
Shrewsbury’s excitement about starting a career doing what he loves shines through in his social media posts and when talking to him in person.
“I get paid to make people feel good, like how awesome of a job is that,” Shrewsbury said. “You meet people from all different walks of life, hear all different kinds of stories, and I like to talk, so it’s a perfect kind of job.”
CoJo Cuts Barbershop is located at 521 N. Vandemark Road and is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, visit cojocuts.com, the CoJo Cuts Barbershop Facebook page, or call 937-658-6255.
