Photo by Gary Leonard.Published: Friday, July 30, 2010 10:09 AM PDT   ©Downtown News

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Spring Street’s Bolt Barbers got a distinguished visitor this week, when Dick Van Dyke dropped by.

On Monday, July 26, the legendary actor — whose career includes his own television show as well as appearances in films such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, showed up to pick the first winner, a vacation worth $5,000, in a series of raffles benefiting the Midnight Mission. Van Dyke is a longtime supporter of the Mission, which is headquartered on San Pedro Street in Skid Row.

Another “early bird” drawing, also for a trip, will be held Aug. 25, and in September the big prizes, including a BMW 750 or $65,000 in cash, will be handed out. Other prizes include additional trips and iPads,

The raffle, for which Los Angeles Downtown News is a co-sponsor, is an effort to help the mission at a time when it has more people seeking services yet fewer donations due to the economy. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased at winnerschoicemidnightmission.com or by calling (877) 338-2968.

Now, Bolt Barbers offers Mullet Mondays.

Free Mullets Shorn (Only) By Mohawk Matt since the rest of the barbering tribe at Bolt Barbers refuses to put their name on such a horrible cut. It’s a crime to actually pay to wear your hair this way.  So let Mohawk Matt knock you off style and get mulletized.  An appointment in advance is required. We’ll even validate parking for your F-350 at the Nearby Alexandria Hotel for only $3 buckaroos. Offer subject to expire without notice.

Corey Brill Gets Curious About Bolt Barbers for Get Curiocity

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cko-Soxy8Q

INTRODUCING BIG SUNDAYS!! MAN GROOMING FOR SOCIAL BEASTS.

CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO SIGN UP ONLINE.

BOLT BARBERS™ High Performance Shaving Creams are now available for dudes at the BOLT BARBERS™ flagship in DTLA and ONLINE. To Shop Boltbarbers.com click here.  Free Shipping When You Purchase Two Bolt Barbers High Performance Shaving Creams!

With dudes consistently returning to BOLT BARBERS™ for their shearing, shaving, and shining ritual, former P&G global marketing executive and BOLT BARBERS™ Founder ‘Mohawk’ Matt Berman saw a need for guys to take the BOLT experience home with them.

“We’re not a salon and we don’t sell beauty products,” said Berman. “BOLT is a barbershop and social space for males aged 7-70 to hang out and be themselves. We get so many requests from guys who want to purchase the proprietary creams, oils, and juices we use on them at our barbershop. We decided to start selling the stuff to our hairy beasts so that they can achieve shaving results at home that replicates the feeling and experience of stepping out of BOLT BARBERS™.”

BOLT BARBERS™ High Performance Shaving Cream comes in two specifically formulated 5 Ounce (150ml) versions, one for hairy beasts (bearded men) and another for clean-shaven beasts (clean shaven men):

The Anti-Oxidizing Shave Cream for Hairy Beasts is intensively dosed with essential pomegranate oil.  This oxidizes and titillates the beard follicles, making it easier to line up and trim beard hair.

The Mentholating Shave Cream for Clean Shaven Beasts is intensively mentholated with natural eucalyptus oil. This stimulates beard follicles to stand erect while softening them to ensure a smooth and close shave, even in the shower.

“The first thing someone sees when meeting you is your face, which is why we started by launching a take-home shaving cream for our homies,” explained Berman. “Our High Performance Grooming Stuff is the antithesis of a beauty product, in much the same way BOLT BARBERS™ is the antithesis of a salon.  Guys are reassured about the products’ efficacy through our ‘Tested On Hairy Beasts’ seal of approval!”

The new shaving creams are available exclusively at BOLT BARBERS™, or ordered online at www.boltbarbers.com for $13.  BOLT is offering free shipping on the purchase of two shaving creams purchased on-line.

BOLT BARBERS™ High Performance Grooming Stuff is expanding to include shaving oils, shampoo, and styling fixatives throughout 2010.

BOLT BARBERS™ flagship barbershop is located at 460 South Spring Street in Downtown LA, and open Monday-Wednesday until 7PM, and Thursday-Saturday until Midnight. Additional BOLT locations are planned in Hollywood, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and in London’s Soho district.

Born 1982 in Michigan. Unremarkable. Attended Michigan State University and received a BFA in Painting from RMCAD 2006. My art is conceived in many different ways. As a result, it has no singular ambition. 20-time Guinness World Record applicant. Sometimes I turn things inside-out and will now and then nail a balloon to the wall. As a boy, I spent countless nights as a lighthouse attendant off the Nova Scotia coast. During these long, foggy, pensive nights, I felt nothing.

My art is often the product of the dissapointment I felt.

I was also Time magazine’s 2006 Person of the Year. As well as 7 time Newbery Award winning reader 1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993, 2002…respectively… Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman, Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Missing May by Cynthia Rylant, A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. Once shook Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s hand.

Bolt Barbers in the LA Times!!!!

According to Hector Tobar from the LA Times, Barbasol and a brew are ingredients for downtown’s revival. We agree! Click here to read the LA Times article on Bolt Barbers!

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On behalf of Shear, Shave, & Shine, our unfamously infamous three little clipper chimps, representing our pride and passion, we thank downtown Los Angeles for the warm welcome we received to our new hood.  Lot’s of surprises, including an unannounced visit by Mother Hawk, creator of Mohawk Matt, Ribbon Shearing by Orlando Ward of the Midnight Mission using a sheep shearing clippers (supplied courtesy of Ross Cutlery), and over 75 Happy Hawked Beasts who helped raise two grand for The Midnight Mission.  Lot’s of special people to thanks for giving birth to the beast.  Bolt’s Ring Leader Mr Chadwick & Sous Ring Leader & Mullet Junkie Sinjun , Shine Master Happy feet, Ricky, Bryson, & Gary from CCI, Jesse from J&J Barber, Nicholas, Simon, Cal from Perspective Branding, Mary from the Morgan Network, Joji from Downtown Properties, Anastasia from my Past, Present, & Future, , John from the LAAC,  Motivational Barber Ivan Zoot from Andis, Author Dr Mic Hunter, & of course The Awesome Barbering Tribe at Bolt.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pay0H3-rFM

Hawks For Homeless is a volunteer driven fundraising event for The Midnight Mission. Hundreds of volunteers get shorn and/or styled with a mohawk or faux hawk to raise awareness while requesting donations of support from friends & family.   The Mission offers a bridge to self sufficiency for homeless people through counseling, education, job training, and job placement.

H4H will be hosted by Guinness World Speed Haircutting Record Holder Ivan Zoot, courtesy of The Andis Company. Zoot and our Bolt Barbers, will shear and/or style your hair into a hawk from 5p until 10p on Thursday, November 12th.

Shearing takes place at Bolt Barbers first barbershop For Social Beasts™, 460 South Spring Street, DTLA.  Click Here to DONATE NOW!

Ivan Zoot is director of education and training for the Andis Company and continues to be a featured presenter at industry shows and events sharing his unique blend of information, education and enthusiasm for clipper cutting and the entire professional beauty industry.

Need More Information? E Mail: chadwick@boltbarbers.com

Mark Your i-Calenders. join Dr Mic Hunter for a Lively Lunch & Conversation exploring the important rite of passage barbershops have played in developing social beasts, November 12th 2009 , 12:30-2:30P, Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA  $25.00 Inclusive. To Purchase Tickets Online, Please  Click Here .Need more information?: E Mail chadwick@boltbarbers.com

Dr Mic Hunter, Author of The American Barbershop, and a Noted Minnesota Psychologist, is the keynote speaker at an intriguing lunch at The Los Angeles Athletic Club. We’ll break bread together as we celebrate social beasts, slang for guys, and their need for a third place beyond Home & Work/School.  A Round table follows with a variety of professionals from differing walks of life providing their own insights and perspective on the subject. Join in for an unusual topic that will stimulate your soul.  Break Bread: 12:30P, Keynote 13:00, Roundtable 13:30, Q&A 14:00 End 14:30. Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 West 7th Street, Downtown Los Angeles. www.laac.com Social Tax: $25, includes lunch, conversation, and transferable gift card good for straight edge razor shave at Bolt Barbers ($22 Value).

Dr. Mic Hunter spent 14 years traveling across more than half of the States in the Union in search of the authentic American barbershop experience. Along the way he collected stories and made photographs that reveal the barbershop as a place where men go to be with men and boys go to learn to be men. During the time he worked on this project half of the traditional barbershops in America closed their doors forever. These photographs show the timelessness of the barbershop and its importance to masculine culture and rites of passage.

Bolt Barbers™ Has teamed Up with Barbershop Artist Jodi Bonassi for a very special Art Walk Exhibit This Thursday, September 10th from 4-10pm:

Jodi Bonassi,

Downtown Los Angeles, USA – Mohawk Matt Berman, Founder & Chief Barber of BOLT BARBERS™ announces BOLT’s first artwalk exhibition at The Rowan Gallery. BOLT BARBERS has teamed up with artist Jodi Bonassi, to display her award winning barbershop oil paintings at the gallery, located adjacent to the future location of BOLT BARBERS at 460 South Spring Street in Los Angeles.

Mohawk Matt and his team from BOLT BARBERS will be offering guys free haircuts all night within the exhibition space. Guys will be shorn in one of BOLT’s five vintage Koken President Barber Chairs, dating from the 1950’s. The exhibit including the live barbering will convey not just the look but also the feel of an old school barbershop, something that has gone missing from Downtown Los Angeles until now.

The artwork of Jodi Bonassi conveys the important role barbershops played for men as a social garage. Jodi learned the linkage to her fascination with barbershops only after she had already begun painting them. Jodi had been sketching in a 5th generation barbershop when a relative informed Jodi that her now deceased grandfather, Jacob Feldman, had been a barber. The relative sent Jodi two old photos of Jake Feldman in his barbershop. That inspired Jodi to paint the first Grandpa Jake Barbershop painting, which was published in Harpers, exhibited in Los Angeles and in Boston, reviewed in the Boston Globe and then stolen at LAX.

After getting over the shock of the theft, Jodi decided to serialize her Grandpa Jake’s Barbershop Paintings. This is Jodi’s way of paying homage to her Grandpa and maintaining a connection with him. She recently completed her ninth painting in the Grandpa Jake series, which will be unveiled at the exhibition. Jodi’s goal is to complete 100 paintings in the series. Jodi’s Grandpa Jake series has continued to get reviewed and published in articles such as Flavorpill and other noteworthy publications.

The Barbering Exhibition promises to be a memorable evening, enabling visitors not just to see, but also to feel, smell, and experience an authentic real barbershop. Mark your calendars. Thursday, September 10th. Exhibit hours are from 4pm-10pm. The Rowan Gallery, 460 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013

For More Information About Jodi Bonassi, visit jodibonassiart.com