The Whole 9 operations manager Dejah Winston, left, and owner Marcus Taylor. (Jackie DiBartolomeo photos)
New barbershop The Whole 9 Grooming Lounge to open in the Fan
✍🏽 Jackie DiBartolomeo
📅 May 4, 2026
With over three decades of cutting hair under his belt, Marcus Taylor is opening a shop he can call his own.
Taylor will soon open The Whole 9 Grooming Lounge, a barbershop at 1657 W. Broad St. in the Fan.
Spanning 1,700 square feet, the shop will have space for haircuts and other barber services as well as socialization among its customers. Taylor plans to offer both subscription-based haircuts as well as walk-in and single appointments.
The shop is scheduled to open in mid-May.
Taylor, 42, grew up in the East End, and said he first cut other people’s hair for practice beginning at age 10. He went on to serve in the Army, worked as a longtime barber and also owns a hair and beard care line, 9th Wonder Products, that he launched in 2014.
9th Wonder was inspired by Taylor’s grandmother, who passed away when he was 12 years old and who made a hair oil he and other family members used. The brand offers a range of men’s and women’s body care products.
Taylor makes his hair care products and ships them out of his Richmond home.
With a hair care business in tow, Taylor said it has been a lifelong dream to open his own barbershop. Though the idea had been in his head for decades, he began putting the wheels in motion seriously about two years ago, and recently secured the Fan location, which he liked for its proximity to Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Union University.
The new space has around six chairs for haircuts, a small lounge area for customers to sit and relax, a display area for 9th Wonder Products and a small room in the back that he said he plans to convert into a small “relaxation area” with a massage chair. Taylor said he may potentially hire a masseuse to provide short massages to customers.
Taylor said The Whole 9 will cater to all hair types and textures. He wants the shop to be a place where customers can relax and socialize.
“I’m all about family, entrepreneurship, business, building community. And I decided to create The Whole 9 to encompass all of that,” he said. “The ‘whole nine yards’ … that’s where it comes from.”
Taylor said he is still working on prices for one-off appointments, and will offer a four haircuts-per-month package for $100. He added that people who don’t need four haircuts each month, can send someone in their spot under the same membership package.
The Whole 9 is currently a team of two, including Taylor and operations manager and brand designer Dejah Winston. Taylor said he hopes to hire four additional barbers.
He added that he will move his 9th Wonder Products brand to the West Broad Street shop, using a basement area that is part of the lease as his new manufacturing and shipping space.
Taylor, who grew up in public housing in a childhood he described as “not a privileged background,” said he hopes opening a storefront in a visible location along West Broad Street can inspire others with similar upbringings to do the same.
“I have always been a dreamer and a doer,” he said. “I want to show people what a little black boy from the projects can do. I want to mainly show those kids.”
The Whole 9 will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.