Diamond Cuts Barbershop

Diamond Cuts Barbershop is a walk-in barbershop at 34th and Troost in Kansas City, Missouri, opened in 2012 by Phil Diamond Jr. in the storefront where Barbershop 67 stood before it.

Description

Diamond Cuts is a barbershop on the east side of Troost Avenue at 34th Street, in the block that has held a barbershop continuously through two owners and a violent interruption.¹² It operates as a walk-in shop with multiple barbers working from a bank of chairs and mirrors, and it markets itself for family cuts as well as adult clientele.¹³

The shop was profiled by The Pitch in January 2013, six months after opening, and returned to public attention later that year when Kansas City PBS filmed a nine-part conversation series, Your Fellow Americans, on the shop’s back patio — using Diamond Cuts as the setting for an on-the-record discussion of race, immigration and the American Dream across the Troost dividing line.¹²

For at least six consecutive years the shop ran an annual Back 2 School Bash — a free event giving away haircuts and school supplies to students and families; the sixth annual edition, in August 2018, set a goal of 500 free haircuts and was promoted by Gospel 1590 KPRT.³

The business now posts under the name “House of Diamonds Hair Lounge” on social media and advertises a second Kansas City location at 106 W 39th St; these are first-party claims made on the shop’s own Instagram account.⁴ (This business is unrelated to the Overland Park jeweler also called House of Diamonds.)

Ownership and history

Phil Diamond Jr. opened Diamond Cuts in mid-2012.¹² The Pitch reported that he had been cutting hair for about a decade at that point and that Diamond Cuts was the first shop to carry his own name.¹

The storefront’s prior tenant was Barbershop 67, opened in 2009 by Craig Carlock — a draftsman by trade who converted a shuttered church building on Troost and named the shop after his high school football jersey number at Paseo Academy.¹ On November 16, 2011, barber Joe Jackson, 53, was shot and killed at the shop during an attempted robbery; two men were arrested within 24 hours, and Carlock closed Barbershop 67 in January 2012 as business fell away.¹ Carlock told The Pitch he remained committed to Troost and to the Troost Village Community Association.¹ Diamond reopened the space later that year.¹²

Phil Diamond Jr.’s current business structure, the legal entity name, the opening date of the West 39th Street second location, and whether the Back 2 School Bash still runs annually.

Links

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diamond_cuts_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kcdiamondcuts/

Services

• Men’s and boys’ haircuts, walk-in basis.⁴³
• Family cuts; the shop describes itself as “a full-service barbershop with licensed barbers providing amazing haircuts for the entire family.”³
• Appointment booking through Booksy in addition to walk-ins.⁴
• Second location at 106 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO 64111 (first-party claim).⁴

Price list. The shop’s own social posts reference a $20 Tuesday promotion but no standing first-party menu of prices was found.⁴

Sources

Footnotes

1. Jonathan Bender, “Barbershop 67 built a community. Diamond Cuts is taking it back,” The Pitch, January 16, 2013. URL ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. “Talking about race at a KC barbershop: Diamond Cuts conversations,” Kansas City PBS, Your Fellow Americans. URL ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. “Diamond Cuts B2S Bash,” Gospel 1590 KPRT event listing, August 26, 2018 (includes address and phone). URL ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. House of Diamonds / Diamond Cuts (@diamond_cuts_), Instagram (business account; 2026 posts). URL ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵