Shit to do and Reflections
Upcoming community events I’m stoked about:
Oaktoberfest! It’s the fuckin best, and it’s on October 3rd and 4th. I’ll be out there all weekend raising money for Edna Brewer Middle School too! Come say hi!! for more info, click the link below:
Our front desk guy downtown Isaias has two shows on October 9th at The mellow in San Francisco, and The Deluxe on Tuesday October 27th. Check out his Astral Jazz Grooves on his bandcamp here:
https://isaias-medellin.bandcamp.com/album/f-mph-digital-archive
Sam the Barber has a cool show coming up too. He’ll be playing with. The Heavy Arts Ensemble at Thee Stork Club on Thursday October 1st. Info at Thee Stork Clubs website here.
https://theestorkclub.com/calendar/
Pshyched fest is a month long music festival spanning over Multiple San Francisco and Oakland and Mexico City Venues! Check out this Line up and Celebrate the weirdos and counter cultures of the psychedelic world! I also usually use the flyer to seek out and listen to bands I’ve never heard before.
https://fest.psychedradiosf.com/psychedfest-sf-2026/
For my FREAKS AND GEEKS we have the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. GET WEIRD FOR ME, I’LL BE AT HOME.
There’s probably a bunch of other cool stuff happening that I’m missing too. If you have anything you’d like to plug for the holidays just Email me at Dan@daxlees.com
Here’s the Blog…
This is the first blog post on here I’m actually making. The web designer Aaron Molo made the other two, so let’s see if this works. We got the runner up for East Bay Express Best Barbershop in the east bay. Not bad man, We’ve been around so long that it’s just nice to be noticed and our name listed on the best of. Your votes got us there too, so thank you!! Running a small business is hard as hell, but you guys, the heart and soul of this small business, make it all worth it. Thank you for singing our praises.
I’m not going to lie, this year has been one of the hardest of my life. My businesses are small, so when I’m not at my best I feel that it reflects in the quality of life around Dax Lee’s. Keeping this ship upright and the folks here happy is always a priority, and through my personal storms of 2026 I think I did OK. Could’ve done better. Could’ve done a lot better. Everyone else picked up the slack so well while I was hurting so badly. All the folks here held up the shop while I was planning the chili cook off with that other team (big shout out to the chili cook off team). They’ve Propped up the shop while I went down to deal with my moms final affairs. They really let me know when I had to make some hard changes around the shop, which set me up for the changes that were inevitable (shout out the Gabe and Rachel for taking the plunge and starting Hey Good Lookin!). Everyone stuck by the shop and believed in it, everyone did their part. You, the haircut-getter did your part and thank you for that. You all kept this place afloat despite the highest highs, the lowest lows and a hell of a lot of change. Thanks for letting me melt a bit, it’s a real priveledge.
If you’ve sat in my chair since January, you’ve probably heard me say that my life is completely different than it was last year. This is more or less completely true despite the same business setting, but businesses change. People grow and leave to do their own thing, it’s the nature of everything. I moved, my mom died, my kid transitioned to middle school and I’m fatter. I fired someone from my shop for the first time and a couple founding members of the shop left to thrive. The shops still grew, and I didn’t completely lose it or spontaneously combust. As far as the shop is concerned and with all this change, I still think we have the best team in the game. This community’s patience with the newer folks in the shop trying to grow is seen and felt, and it’ll only get better because of it. I myself have enjoyed a little switch to educator in this process and hope to explore this more in the future, as well as small business mentorship. The changes can kill you, or you can go through the doors that change opens and see what more you’re capable of and how resilient you really are. I think that’s why Bruce Lee told us to be water.
As this summer ends and the fall begins I’m going to say reflection and healing are paramount for consistency and growth. For the sake of my family and my businesses, I’m trying to do all of it. I’ll also try to practice what I’m preaching. So, if you’ve made it this far, you have a total invitation to keep me accountable and thank you in advance for doing so. It might help me get David Bautista swoll or something, or at get me fitting in the 2xl shirts I’ve been cramming myself into all year. Cheers!!