ROMAIN -Coupure- Est. 1884
The Living History of Belgium’s Oldest Barbershop
The story of our barbershop’s interior reaches back far beyond 1884. Its origins lie in 1820, when the elegant wooden interior first stood in another location — on the Veldstraat in Ghent — in the shop of Barber Schauvlieghe.
In 1884, this remarkable interior was moved to its current home on the Coupure. The relocation and preservation of the salon owe much to the Roels family, who, at the time, saved the historic furniture from being discarded. Recognizing its artistic and cultural value, the Roels family purchased it and installed it in the building that still houses it today.
Once the salon was in their possession, the Roels family decided to lease it to a barber. The first to work behind these historic chairs on the Coupure was Barber Leon — a respected name in the neighborhood. Leon remained faithful to tradition: shaving with a genuine open-blade razor, honed on Belgian Coticule stones, while also running a gentleman’s perfume and tobacco shop.
After Leon’s long service, the torch passed to the legendary Barber Kenneth, who worked here from the age of fourteen until his retirement at eighty-five. Kenneth witnessed every era — from the jazz age to the Beatles — yet the salon itself remained unchanged. He continued to honor the old traditions: lightly perfuming his clients, dusting them off with care, and shaving with a hand-honed straight razor on natural stones. Toward the end of his career, he no longer performed shaves, yet the soul of the craft — its respect, elegance, and timeless attention to detail — lived on in the shop.
When Stijn De Sutter, founder of ROMAIN, learned that this historic salon might be passed on, his interest was immediate. ROMAIN already had two locations and remained faithful to the same traditional methods — shaving exclusively with open razors honed on natural stones, offering fine tobacco products, and creating their own line of fragrances.
Discovering that this third location had been the workplace of two such remarkable barbers before him made the opportunity even more extraordinary. It was a chance to continue the legacy in the very heart of Ghent, inside the oldest barbershop in Belgium — a heritage too precious to let fade.
A careful restoration followed. Every piece of the interior was cleaned, polished, and revived. The space was refreshed with new colors and subtle indirect LED lighting, replacing the harsh fluorescent tubes from the 1960s, while preserving the soul of the historic salon.
And so, Kenneth’s barbershop became ROMAIN — the third generation of barbers to work in this legendary place, still offering the same authentic service. We welcome clients from every walk of life into Belgium’s oldest barbershop, a living museum where stories of the past continue to echo.
Today, this is one of the very few places in the world where men can still be shaved with a traditional open-blade razor — and where barbers from all over the globe come to learn this craft with love and respect. We’ve already welcomed students from the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and many more.
There could be no better place to learn one of the world’s oldest professions than here, in the oldest barbershop in Belgium.
With pride, we turn a new page in this story — preserving the heritage, fulfilling Barber Kenneth’s wish that the tradition lives on, and ensuring that this historic craft remains alive for future generations.
