Historic barbershop reopens in Columbus after 16 years. Meet the new owners

After 16 years, a historic Columbus barbershop has reopened.

Jud Richardson, owner of Fountain City Coffee, and Joshua McKeehan, master barber, have teamed up to reopen the Blue J Barbershop, 2220 Wynnton Road.

The original barbershop was being renovated in real estate developer Jennifer Flournoy’s larger effort to help revitalize this part of midtown. The opportunity came to reopen at the perfect time.

Richardson, a Columbus native, was looking to get into commercial real estate. McKeehan, raised in Columbus, was looking to own a barbershop.

And the barbershop has personal ties. Richardson is a fourth-generation customer at the Blue J. He got his haircut at the shop until it closed in 2009.

“The Blue J has been a long-time part of my life,” Richardson told the Ledger-Enquirer. “It came to mind that this building had been purchased. It was in the process of being renovated, so we came to look at it, and things just fell into place. This was the right move for us.”

Richardson handles the “back end” of management, keeping up the books, marketing and more. McKeehan will be one of two barbers in the shop.

“I’m bringing the experience that I have of owning and running Fountain City to this business,” Richardson said, “and I hope that the 20 years of experience I have does something to help.”

The shop had its soft opening Nov. 12. The grand opening date has not been announced.

About the Blue J Barber Shop and the McGee family

McKeehan and Richardson emphasized the importance of preserving the rich history of the Blue J.

Established in 1928, the Blue J Barbershop was a staple in the community. The shop was first owned and operated by Martin Jones. In 1969, David McGee, one of Jones’ barbers at the Blue J, bought the business from him.

“Dave is kind of the name of the shop,” McKeehan told the Ledger-Enquirer. “If you talk to anybody who remembers the Blue J, Dave’s name is going to get brought up.”

McGee, a World War II veteran, began working at the Blue J after graduating from Moler Barber College in 1950. After buying the shop, he ran the business until he died in 2006. His family continued to operate the shop but ultimately decided to close it in 2009.

Lauren Brinks, granddaughter of David McGee, told the Ledger-Enquirer that her family’s decision to close was long and tough, but ultimately “it got to be too much.”

“Once my grandfather passed away, I feel like a lot of his regular clients started going elsewhere because it just wasn’t the same without him,” she said. “The name kind of diminished a little bit after my grandfather passed away.”

While preparing to reopen the Blue J, McKeehan asked Brinks for her family to approve their plan.

“I contacted [Brinks] and sent this long, drawn email,” he said. “It was like ‘Hey, this is my name. This is my business partner. This is what we want to do, and if you guys don’t approve it, we don’t want to tarnish your grandfather’s name.’”

When she got the email, Brinks said, she was thrilled.

“I just love the fact that somebody wanted to keep his history alive,” she said. “It was wonderful. And the fact that he had reached out to me personally to get permission, it just meant the world. It was a very easy yes.”

Brinks owns and operates a kids’ boutique barbershop in Atlanta, named the Little Blue Jay in honor of her late grandfather.

“I know I’m partial because I’m his granddaughter, but he was truly one of the best men I ever knew, and everybody who knew him would say the same,” she said. “It’s just so neat. A lot of my high school friends got their first haircut with my grandfather. Now they’re bringing their kids to my shop to get their first haircuts. The way this has developed into this family-owned, like historical business, it’s really been amazing to see.”

Meet the new owners of the Blue J Barbershop

McKeehan said his background and McGee’s share a lot of similarities.

Before becoming a barber, McKeehan spent five years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“The Marine Corps is big on legacy and living up to and carrying on the traditions that come before you,” he said. “The Blue J is that for Columbus. For me, as a barber, it’s got a legacy and history that I don’t want to tarnish. I want to build off of it without taking away from it.”

After he finished his military service in 2014, McKeehan took a year to figure out what he wanted to do next in his career. A mutual friend suggested barber school and sent him a link to an admission application and a documentary about European barbers.

“The documentary about the barbers in Europe changed my outlook on whether I could do this or not,” McKeehan said. “It was a lot of guys that grew up skateboarding and listening to punk rock and had a lot of tattoos. I was like ‘OK, this isn’t just a bunch of old guys in white coats. This is something that I could fit into.’”

McKeehan graduated from The Barber School by Tim Hite in Midvale, Utah. He worked at several shops around the Salt Lake Valley. An older classmate proposed opening their own barber shop. He opened City Barbers in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2016. While he worked at the shop, he finished another round of schooling at the Old School Barber Academy in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

After four years of operating City Barbers, McKeehan moved back home to Columbus.

“At the end of last year, I decided it was time for me to go and do my own thing,” he said. “That’s the start of this.”

McKeehan and Richardson met in 2006. At the time, Richardson worked at Fountain City Coffee, and McKeehan was looking for a job. McKeehan started working at the coffee shop part-time.

“I’m a big history buff, and I love cutting hair, so the fact that I get to do it in a 100-year-old barber shop that my best friend grew up in, ... I mean, it’s a dream come true,” McKeehan said. “You can’t make that up.”

Preserving the history of the Blue J Barbershop

The legacy of the Blue J brought a complexity of emotions to the two owners.

With his rich family ties to the Blue J, Richardson said, “The emotional aspect of this business is really important to me.. I found that throughout this process, as we got pieces together and started moving things in, even looking at these chairs, really gave me a well up of emotion.”

Richardson and McKeehan also pay homage to the barbershop’s history through its decoration. With the help of the McGee family, they collected archive photos of the barbershop, some with David McGee and others with the original owner, Marvin Jones.

They also kept the original sinks and had blue barber chairs custom-made to pay tribute to the original baby blue barber chairs that inspired the name of the shop. The J in the shop’s name comes from Jones’ last name.

“I always want the chairs to be presented so that they look like they are accepting the next client,” McKeehan said.

McKeehan said the task of preserving the Blue J’s legacy doesn’t feel like a burden. It’s an opportunity.

“It’s not pressure,” he said. “It’s readiness. I’m ready to open these doors and let the community come in and remember what they did here, and the people they met, the stories they heard, and build off of that.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 9:03 AM.