The owners of No Grease Barbershop - Damian and Jermaine Johnson - have been quit the topic of conversation lately. The entrepreneurs were able to bring their No Grease Barbershop brand to SouthPark Mall. Their Knights of the Razor set up shop there in January 2021. And that's no easy feat, especially since SouthPark is full of high-end luxury stores like Neiman-Marcus and Nordstrom.
To have a black-owned and operated barbershop inside the mall is rare. With that said, the Johnson brothers were excited about the new opportunity afforded to them back in January. That's when management at SouthPark offered them a one-year temporary lease.
To their surprise two months after moving in, they were sent a letter from mall management saying their lease would be terminated — nine months early. The brothers responded with questions and frustration. They posted what happened on social media. Many in the Charlotte community were not happy.
All the noise brought change. I got a chance to chat with the two brothers about their journey.
