Crown & Clippers owner targets 10 shops by his 28th birthday

By Amara Osei

Crown & Clippers Barbershop, opened in Scarborough in September 2025 by 22-year-old Abiran Thevarajah, generated about $46,000 in revenue that month and now holds a five-star Google rating with more than 1,600 reviews. Google ranks it as Scarborough’s most-rated barbershop.

The shop employs seven barbers and two braiders, covering cutting and braiding services in an eight-chair space with dark walls, bright ring lights and cushioned seats. “It was a dream scenario,” Thevarajah said.

How did a lockdown haircut become a business?

During COVID-19 lockdowns, Thevarajah stayed home and taught himself to cut hair with a YouTube tutorial. After his third attempt, he offered two friends his services. “I messed both of them up,” he said. “Both of their parents said, ‘Don’t come back.’”

He kept practicing as lockdowns lifted and finished high school, eventually charging $10 per cut. Six years later, at 22, he owned Crown & Clippers; his $10 starter cut and the shop’s $46,000 September revenue mark two very different stages of the same business model.

Thevarajah wants young people facing a bleak job market to see business ownership as a real option. “There’s so many other paths, and I feel like a lot of people should have been told that in high school,” he said. He wishes that guidance had reached him earlier.

Cutting wasn’t his planned profession. He entered university for a business degree but withdrew four months later, then worked at 19 for two years in a Scarborough shop, where he helped grow the business through job interviews and website design. He saved enough to buy half the business, but that deal fell through, so he decided to go alone.

Two months later, he opened Crown & Clippers near Finch Avenue East and Kennedy Road. “I didn’t even know what I was doing, for the most part,” he said. He assembled tables by hand, booked appointments and handled marketing and accounting.

For working barbers, the lesson is that technical skill and business development can run in parallel. Thevarajah combined practice with hiring, website design and accounting, creating the operating base for his own shop.

What does the expansion model mean for working barbers?

Thevarajah expects to open a second shop in North York this spring and reach 10 locations by his 28th birthday. His model pairs him with employed barbers: together they would open a shop, while the barber learns management and Thevarajah supplies accounting help, “brand power” and other business support.

Several of his barbers, like Thevarajah, are in their early 20s and want to manage businesses. That progression gives staff a route beyond the chair and turns Thevarajah’s role into a mix of ownership, finance, marketing and staff support.

Najim Mahmud, 22, said: “We know in the future that this is going to pay us off.” He once considered cutting hair the peak of a barber’s career, but now hopes to manage his own shop. “He isn’t just thinking about his future, he’s thinking about everybody’s future,” Mahmud said.

Thevarajah said: “I want my barbers to feel motivated … when they come to work, just knowing they have a path.” The ownership proposal gives his younger team a management route that he believes should have been available to more people in high school.

A report found that discrimination and systemic barriers, including poor access to transit, are among the obstacles young people face. Thevarajah’s partnership model gives his younger team a concrete route into business ownership.

Why do clients keep coming?

About 20 people filled the shop on a late Friday afternoon. Some sat in the shop’s eight barber chairs, while others played a soccer video game on a wall-mounted television as music played and razors buzzed. The barbers remained friendly with clients and one another.

Several barbers, including Mahmud, had worked there since opening and knew each other from high school or previous jobs. “It’s not just business,” Mahmud said. “People are just laughing, talking about the same thing.”

Seniya Sinhara, 20, has been Mahmud’s client since they were teenagers. “He was one of my guinea pigs, back in the day,” Sinhara said. He now visits for the younger crowd and casual atmosphere on some evenings, not only his haircut.

“I feel like I built a lot of friendships coming here,” Sinhara said. “It’s about the loyalty, right?” For Crown & Clippers, those comments describe a retention mechanism built around familiar barbers and repeat social visits.

Dahom Allala, 23, visits even without an appointment because his barber, Dahom Noor, is a longtime friend. “If he ever has free time, I might try to pull up,” Allala said. “You know, try to support each other.”

Noor agreed: “Some days it doesn’t even feel like work. I just feel like I’m hanging out with friends.” For a seven-barber operation, appointment-free visits can add customer traffic alongside booked services. They also test the community proposition Thevarajah wants to carry into North York.

With $46,000 in September revenue and more than 1,600 reviews behind him, Thevarajah’s next checkpoint is the North York opening planned for spring. His stated benchmark is scaling one nine-person shop into 10 sites by age 28, through proposed partnerships with staff barbers.