Inside West and Hunter as Chiswick’s most ambitious barbershop looks ahead

Following a major refurbishment, founder Zamaine Ismail is expanding West and Hunter with a new podcast, private membership and a renewed focus on making its Chiswick High Road home a community hub

West and Hunter has built a reputation well beyond Chiswick for the quality of its barbering and the experience around it. Following a recent refurbishment, founder Zamaine Ismail is now developing the business further, with a new podcast, private membership and ambitions to make its High Road home an even bigger part of the community

There is very little from the outside to suggest what is waiting inside West and Hunter. At 125 Chiswick High Road, the shop sits amongst the businesses that line one of west London’s busiest local streets, and from the pavement it is easy enough to walk past without giving it much thought.

Open the door, though, and the scale of the place becomes apparent.The space is large, with high ceilings, Georgian style panelling, skylights and a long run of barber stations, while the lounge at the front has leather Chesterfield sofas, a fireplace and a bar.

The recent refurbishment has brought the whole thing up to date without losing the character that has always been part of West and Hunter’s identity.

I had been invited in to have my hair cut by Zamaine Ismail, who founded West and Hunter, and over the course of the afternoon it became clear that the physical space is only one part of his ambition for the business.

I have been going to different barbers and salons since moving to London without ever really finding one that I wanted to stick with, partly because I have never been very good at explaining what I want.

I know when my hair is not doing what I want it to do, but describing exactly why is another matter. I tried to explain that to Zamaine, and he understood almost immediately. He asked a few questions, explained what he thought was going wrong and then talked me through how he would change it.

There was no need for me to come up with the right terminology because he knew what I was getting at before I had managed to explain it properly myself.

It’s a pretty good demonstration of the difference between having somebody cut your hair and having somebody who really knows what they are doing.

The haircut itself came with considerably more than I am accustomed to. There was coffee, time to talk through what I wanted, and then a heated, scented towel which was sufficiently relaxing that I could have happily stayed in the chair for considerably longer than necessary.

The prices are certainly premium, although that needs some context.

London has become an increasingly expensive place to get your hair cut, and £60 plus is now hardly unusual even for a fairly standard service at an established barbershop.

West and Hunter sits towards the more expensive end of that market, with a bespoke haircut starting at £64, but having experienced it myself, it doesn’t feel as though you’re paying that amount simply to have somebody cut your hair.

The haircut comes with a level of service, from the consultation to the products and the attention given to the small details, which makes the price easier to understand. West and Hunter opened in 2020, with Zamaine having already spent years working in the industry, including at the Acqua di Parma barbershop in Mayfair.

The business has since picked up industry recognition, including Barbershop/Grooming Salon of the Year at the British Hairdressing Business Awards and Best Client Experience at the Modern Barber Awards, while attracting coverage in national publications.

That progression is what the latest refurbishment is really about.Zamaine didn’t want simply to make the place look different. He wants to keep developing what West and Hunter is, and when I ask him about expansion, his first instinct is to talk about making the Chiswick shop more of a hub rather than immediately opening somewhere else.

It makes sense when you look at how much has already grown around the barbering business. There are customers who have been coming for years, and Zamaine now looks after families in which different generations have become clients.

He talks about Chiswick as somewhere that has given him the opportunity to build the business, and there is no sense that he sees the area as merely a starting point.You get the sense pretty quickly that Zamaine has plenty of ideas about what he wants to do next.

The latest is Zamaine Uncut, a podcast recorded in a custom built studio at West and Hunter. The premise comes directly from the environment in which Zamaine has spent his working life: people talk when they are sitting in a barber’s chair.

Over the years, those conversations have included business owners, entrepreneurs, creatives and people in senior positions, with discussions about their careers, families, influences and the decisions that have shaped their lives.

The podcast gives Zamaine a way of taking those conversations beyond the shop.The same goes for the wider membership offering. West and Hunter is moving further towards the idea of a private grooming club, with a members’ lounge and events alongside the barbering itself.

A permanent gallery featuring the work of photographer Teo Andrioli has also been added to the lounge.

It helps explain why Zamaine is reluctant to describe West and Hunter simply as a barbershop.The barbering is still at the centre of almost everything here, and Zamaine is clearly far too interested in the craft to let that become secondary.

He talks about hair with the enthusiasm of somebody who has spent most of his working life learning how to do it properly, and that came through particularly clearly while he was cutting mine.

For me, that was probably the most noticeable part of the visit. I arrived knowing that I wanted my hair changed but not entirely sure how to explain what I disliked about it. Within a few minutes, Zamaine had worked out what I meant and was explaining what he would do about it.

By the end, I had the haircut I had been trying to describe, but I had also spent an hour in a place which felt considerably removed from the usual experience of fitting in a quick appointment between work and everything else.

The recent refurbishment, the membership, the podcast and the growing number of collaborations all point in the same direction, but Zamaine’s focus remains local.

West and Hunter already has a reputation outside Chiswick, and the awards and national coverage have given him plenty of evidence that the business can compete on a bigger stage. For now, though, the plan is to make 125 Chiswick High Road as good and as useful a home for the business as possible, and to see how much more can grow around it.