Meet the Hairstylist Who Travels Around Brooklyn Offering Dry Cuts for All Textures

If you happened to be strolling under Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, NY recently, you may have spotted a man wearing a floral print button-down cutting hair with a mobile stand draped in greenery. The man, Anthony Payne, has created a little oasis in the form of an outdoor salon built on a philosophy that focuses on the interior of the hair, when most salons focus on the exterior of the hair only. “The mobile salon represents all hair types and solves problems with how the hair air dries, so people have a low maintenance lifestyle. It’s revolutionary,” he tells Byrdie exclusively.

“Covid and the BLM [movement] started me to take to the streets and it was perfect timing as everyone was forced to grow out their Maynes in quarantine. Since I only use a pair of shears and a comb, I am usually best with grooming hair lengths as opposed to cutting hair, and that’s the difference between working on the interior as opposed to the exterior. It only gets shorter when you work on the exterior and I’m a big fan of long hair AKA Mayne,” explains Payne who has been working ten years in cosmetology.

“Mayne” is his loving way of referencing all heads of hair—textures, lengths, styles, genders and races— and a play on words given his last name. Maynes play a big role in Payne’s life—it’s given him purpose. He was inspired to begin a career in hair to solve problems of family, friends and even his own after constantly paying professionals who would not deliver the outcome they wanted. “They would either cut off all the length because they were only focused on the exterior or they would give us a style we would never be able to duplicate in our day to day lives,” he says.

So what can you expect from getting groomed by Payne? On the menu is simple open-air haircuts on air dried hair. You have the option to go home with a deep conditioner. This is what the minimalist movement that has revived our beauty routines in 2021 is all about. And pricing? It’s completely donation based. Funds collected support the new salon concept that “respects and understands all hair types,” plus part of Payne’s business model is to provide Black youth with free hair care. It’s all a part of Payne’s mission to “change the way we groom our hair forever.” And you don’t have to be in Williamsburg to show love to this budding Black-owned business. Fans of his revolutionary concept can show support from anywhere by donating to his GoFundMe.

If you are looking to get your Mayne hooked up by Payne, following him on Instagram @anthonypayne is currently the best way of finding him. Besides Williamsburg, his stand can sometimes be found posted up in Fishtown, PA.