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Burnett adds another fox to Mount Vernon barber shop
- The Posey County News
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
By Dave Pearce
What is a handsome well-educated 25-year-old man doing in Mount Vernon? He’s doing just exactly what he wants to be doing…cutting hair.
Aidan Thompson has found a new home at the Fox Barber Shop in Mount Vernon, Ind. Thompson, who attended high school in Marshall, Ill., was in barber school in Benton, Ill., when he ran into Todd Burnett, the owner of the local shop.
Thompson was born in Evansville, Ind., and grew up in Marshall, Ill. It was there that he began thinking that a career as a barber might be right up his ally.
“After I had already graduated college (at ISU), I decided I wanted to expand on cutting hair,” said Thompson, the owner of a graphic design degree from Indiana State University. “I still do graphic design but I decided I wanted to go into cutting hair because I really enjoy that.”
“It is rewarding when people come in looking real shaggy and you can clean them up and make them look proper and pristine,” Thompson explained. “When you turn them around in the chair, you can see the look on their faces that their confidence has been restored.”
“I went to a barber school in Benton, Ill., known as The Armed Barbers,” Thompson explained. “Todd did classes over there and a couple of barbers over there did one of his shave classes. I had told them that I was looking to get out this direction so when my internship came up, they told me about Todd. I reached out to Todd and got in my internship hours here. We really clicked and his clientele really seemed to get along with me, as well. They were very warm and open to me so it just made sense to come here.”
Although this is the first professional gig for the recent barber school graduate, spending a few minutes with him in the chair and in conversation, you would never believe he isn’t a seasoned veteran.
Always drawn back toward the city where he was born, a job in Mount Vernon helps him achieve that goal while keeping the small-town atmosphere and charm. He is already looking for a home in the area now that he has found a career home first.
“This is a nice small town that I have been around before and there are a lot of nice people here,” Thompson said. “It was a great barber shop already set in place, it was a great situation to come into.”
But it almost seemed like Divine Intervention for both the barbers. Currently a resident of Enfield, Ill., Thompson is thrilled to make the 50-minute one-way drive to Mount Vernon to be a part of a community he has already embraced and that seemingly has already embraced him. Burnett says traffic at the shop has picked up since Thompson has taken over the second chair in the shop.
“The reason that I had never filled that second chair was because I was worried that I would never find the right person that would fit in with the physical and mental aspect I was looking for in an individual,” said Burnett. “I now know that I could never have found anybody as good as what I have with Aidan had I been searching on my own. He was literally brought to me at just the right time and is just what I needed in this space.”
But the idea of being a barber was always in the back of Thompson’s mind.
“I started cutting hair for the first time when I was in high school,” Thompson said. “I would cut my friends’ hair here and there. I went to college and brought that along with me there. I continued to cut friends’’ hair and my family’s hair.”
He looks forward to many busy days and years in Mount Vernon, just making people look good with a fresh haircut.
“I have a girlfriend but we aren’t married yet but we’re working on that,” Thompson said with a smile that showed a little timidity. Klaire is his girlfriend from college.
Thompson is the son of Dane Thompson and Jaqui Bassinger.