Brenda's Story
Born in Everett.
Still here.
A short story about the barber on Colby Avenue who plants her own flowers, collects seashells, and remembers your name.
Brenda Humbert is an Everett native through and through. She worked as a licensed cosmetologist in Monroe, Duvall, and Redmond before deciding she wanted her own place.
“I only like to cut hair.”
Brenda Humbert, on why she calls herself a barber rather than a cosmetologist. My Everett News, 2022.
In 2014she opened her first shop on the 5700 block of Evergreen Way in south Everett. Three years in, the neighborhood had a problem with break-ins. Banks, coffee stands, and the food market right across the street had all been robbed. So Brenda made a call you don't see every day: she went cash-free.
“They don't want tools. They want money.”
Brenda Humbert, KING 5 News, January 2017.
KING 5 and KOMO ran the story the same day. She called the no-cash sign her “loss prevention strategy” and put up 13 surveillance cameras. Footage from those cameras later helped the Everett police investigate an armed robbery at the Welch's Foods next door.
In 2018 she moved the shop to its current home at 2228 Colby Avenue, north of downtown Everett, right next to that same Welch's. She runs it with her husband Rex.
The shop is the story
If you have walked past the shop on Colby, you already know what makes it different. Brenda lines the storefront with dozens of flower pots: impatiens, pansies, hens-and-chicks succulents. She planted them herself.
At the entryway there is a miniature pier with shell-covered pilings. There are gulls, pelicans, and seahorses. A faux lighthouse. A ship's wheel. Fishing nets. Inside, the walls are mirrors and neon-style LED lights and novelty clocks (one of them is Felix the Cat). There are vintage photos of old Everett streetscapes, beauty shop memorabilia, and barber poles in every direction.
The Everett Herald wrote a whole feature about it in 2019: “Barber's flowers and nautical kitsch add to Colby streetscape.” Brenda's explanation was simple.
“It just needs to be cleaned up. It should be safe.”
Brenda Humbert, Everett Herald, July 2019.
The customers are mostly older. That is not an accident.
Brenda's regulars skew 60 and up. The senior discount is automatic. Part of why she went cash-free in the first place was that her older customers shouldn't have to feel nervous coming in for a haircut.
What you get when you sit in her chair is a real consultation, a real cut, and the thing she is best known for: a straight-razor neckline shave finished with a hot, mint-conditioned towel. It comes standard. No upsell.
Twelve years in. Same town she was born in. Same chair. Same razor.