ABOUT

Not your typical barbering story…

Born in Baghdad Ahmed Alsanawi and his family came to England when he was 9 to avoid the inevitable war that was about to take place. Not being able to speak a word of English, life in England was very different to what he was used to back home.

After being in and out of school and college studying art Ahmed picked up his first set of clippers at 16 after not being able to find a barbershop he was happy with. Practicing on brothers, friends and neighbours and having no formal training or qualifications in barbering Ahmed began to hone in on his craft and passion for barbering.

After a short stint at a local barbers, and having built a reputation and large customer base, Ahmed Alsanawi aka A Star Barber opened his first barbershop in 2013 aged 20. In a short space of time, the barbershop has grown into a successful business and is home to professional footballers and walk-in customers alike.

Over the years A Star has travelled across the world cutting footballers and celebrities hair whilst also making sure he spends time in his barbershop seeing his regular customers who have been with him on the journey since the start. With his finger on the pulse in everything mens haircare related, A Star became increasingly frustrated at the products available to him on the market.

In the Summer of 2020, whilst cutting a World Cup Winners hair, he noticed how once he had finished cutting his hair, the footballer then applied aftershave before heading out the door.

In that moment the idea “Fini” was born to combine the best fragrance with the best product. Over the following 2 years A Star began working on developing his own hair styling products whilst also focussing on having a distinctive OUD fragrance.

Reflecting A-Star’s barbershop in being “clean, honest and cool” Fini combines both the best ingredients for hair styling and finishing whilst also containing a perfumed OUD fragrance developed by A Star himself, paying homage to his Arabic routes.

Fini is the French meaning for the English adjective finished:

1. (of a task or activity) brought to an end; completed.
"a preparatory drawing for the finished painting"

2. (of a person's work) expert or accomplished.
"his highly finished craftsmanship”