“That’s my guy,” senior forward Jaxon Kohler said, referring to Weigel, who has cut his hair for years. For Kohler and others, what happens in the shop stays in the shop. The two have grown to exchange life stories and personal interests — not always centered on basketball — while getting cleaned up.

“It’s honestly so awesome to have him here, because he's such a great guy to talk to,” Kohler said. “Not only is he great at his job and gives us good looks, but he's a good guy to really talk to, sit down with and have a good conversation with. He's your classic barber.”

Weigel was working at PacSun, taking classes at Lansing Community College and eventually MSU, trying to figure out what the next step in his life would be. His girlfriend, now wife, was pursuing hairdressing as a career and convinced Weigel to follow in the same path.

Weigel, who was born in Hawaii, liked the idea of being a barber but never considered it a career until then. He faced pressure from his parents, who wanted him to follow a traditional career path. Weigel decided he couldn’t live a life separate from his job — he needed his work to be part of who he was. A couple of months in, he knew it was something to “cling on to.”

“Does my job have to be connected to me as a person and my personality? I like to be creative, work with my hands, create something from nothing,” Weigel said. “That's what I think the deeper reason is of why I think hair cutting hair clicked with me at the time.”

His first year cutting hair was spent at Northside Barbers in Lansing. Then, in 2013, Weigel opened Grand River Barber Company with a colleague, Grant Folry, and the shop began booming right away. Weigel and Folry founded the shop to provide a place for Black and Brown students to get hairstyles that reflected their culture, filling a gap few shops in the area could.

By 2017, they moved to their current location at Grand River Avenue and Division Street, cutting hair for students of all backgrounds. 

“There are salons, then there are other barbershops, old man barber shops, you call them,” Weigel said. “But there wasn't really a place for Black and Brown students to go on campus to get a nice lineup, a nice fade.”

Over the years, Weigel has cut hair all over the country, from lining up WWE stars Roman Reigns and Randy Orton to cleaning up musicians at the Grammy Awards in February. Weigel calls it “Hollywood” — being in charge of how talent looks on stage in front of millions of people.

Weigel’s first day cutting hair for WWE was at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The Lansing-based entrepreneur quickly learned how to move through celebrity circles without losing his professionalism. Weigel saw how other barbers acted as fans for their clients and chose to stray from that path, treating each person in his chair like a regular walking into his shop.

“It's a lot of luck, but you have to be able to have the right kind of professionalism and savvy,” Weigel said. “The kind of professionalism in a corporate office is way different from what it is working behind the scenes of a big production.”

The lessons he learned backstage easily transferred to the Breslin Center when he heard the basketball team needed a team barber. Weigel said understanding the celebrity environment and how to talk to public figures in an intimate setting, like the barber shop, made him the right guy for the job.

With a week until the NCAA Tournament starts, student-athletes deal with an understandable amount of stress, Weigel said. The last thing he wants to do is add to that by poking too hard into what happens on the court. 

“They don't know if I'm going to go to Twitter and tell all the rumors of what's going on inside,” Weigel said.

Striking the right balance of professionalism while getting to know the people in his chair has always come naturally to Weigel. He enjoys being a faux therapist for anyone who needs to clear their mind during a cut. 

“That's going to be on me to listen,” Weigel said.

“I just had a pretty deep conversation with an athlete. I think it was a good conversation. I think it was a conversation he needed to have in a moment of frustration,” Weigel said. “I was just an ear. That's what a barber is.”

Since 2019, Weigel has kept Michigan State Spartans men's basketball players fresh before big games, media days and whenever they need to look their best. Former Spartan Malik Hall stopped in the shop every week, looking to stay sharp. Tyson Walker, Gabe Brown, Jaden Akins and others all got their gameday looks from Weigel.

Being a barber is about meeting the client where they’re at, according to Weigel. He’s an ear for those who need it, but ultimately, he’s there to do a job. And this year’s team, he says, is a fan, to say the least.

This season, Jaxon Kohler gets his haircut regularly by Weigel. Redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. has grown to appreciate Weigel — and the free cuts — too. Basketball players need an almost unorthodox level of confidence to succeed. For Kohler and Fears, the shop is a source of that conviction on the court. For them, “look good, feel good, play good” is more than a cliché.

“It’s a confidence thing. It’s another confidence boost and confidence builder,” Fears said.  “Confidence is key to everything in life,” Fears said. “But overall, it is special. You want to feel good, and when you’re feeling good, you play good, right?”