Two months ago today, Artor, Vic, and Tim Gashi opened Brothers Barbershop on Fort St., in a location that had been the former home to Oscar and Libby’s, before a fire damaged the building in November of 2013.
And with full-service cuts priced at $13, they’ve been busy every day. If that price sounds familiar, it might be a carry-over from Jimmy’s Barber Shop, just down Fort Street. Artor was the manager there, and Vic worked alongside too.
The brothers have an interesting back-story. From Kosovo, Tim worked at the Canadian embassy when the 18-month Kosovo conflict was particularly intense in 1999. Embassy staff arranged for his family to emigrate to Canada, and a family connection in the embassy suggested Victoria.
Sixteen years later, Tim can’t be happier with how his shop looks, after the brothers did all the interior work themselves, after taking possession of the blank space in January. “We had a couple contractors bid on the finishing and when we looked at the quoted prices, we figured we’d have to cut hair for seven months straight just to pay for it”. So the brothers took on the job themselves, work that included removing several layers of flooring to remove a lingering smoke odor from the fire.
