![]() |
Welcome to the Hitching Post |
![]() |
Framed |
I crossed paths with Kristeena Smith for the first time last summer at the Taos Roundup, a western music extravaganza put on by Kristeena and other merchants on Paseo del Pueblo Norte in Taos. I was photographing the festivities, mostly the crowd, when she greeted our friend, Bob Dempsey. Bob, of course, knew Kristeena since he’s the most connected human in these parts. But that’s a story for another time.
![]() |
Working Hands |
![]() |
Headshot One |
![]() |
Headshot Two |
It was a brief encounter that led in two directions, one to have her cut my hair. She was named the Best Barber in Taos for 2023. And two, to take her portrait. Early in our shoot I told her that I favor headshots and prefer open shade like the ones in the doorway to her shop or a single softbox used for the rest. Both provide a soft caressing light.
What I know about Kristeena is cobbled from what Bob has told me, what I heard while she gave my best haircut in recent times and during our conversation when I made her portrait. From Bob I learned that she's in her forties, dropped out of high school, later got her GED and is the single parent of a seventeen year old daughter.
Kristeena filled in the blanks for me. She grew up in Redondo
Beach, a town I know well. I once lived two beach towns north. She left home when she was 16, worked in the hospitality
industry for many years as a server, bartender, and manager. She told me she made the most money in a dive bar. I can relate. I spent the most money in dive bars. Then at some
juncture, she went to barber school where she said she learned nothing except
that she was the only student not afraid to use a straight razor. All the others were guys. At a barbershop
chain with a comprehensive training program she really learned to barber. She cut
hair in or near Redondo Beach then for five more years in wealthy Walnut Creek in Contra Costa
County. She told me she couldn’t afford to live in here. She relocated
to Taos three years ago and opened the Hitching Post Shave Company
which earned its Best Barbershop accolades this year. I recalled to Kristeena that ten
years ago I wrote about my friend and barber Juma Archuletta whom I called The Good
Cutter. Kristeena gave me an au courant haircut, Bob Dempsey’s descriptor, and
joins Juma in the pantheon of great barbers I have known.
My knowledge of Kristeena is completely superficial. And the arc of her story is drawn from my alleged memory. If the facts are sketchy, the gist is spot on.
She is self-made, self-possessed, entrepreneurial,
and brimming with style. And she has a game plan that will free her up to enjoy her horses. I commend her for having a plan and acting on it. In an earlier less subtle generation we’d
have called her a helluva broad.