Our Story
The Holy Black Trading Co started in a bathroom in Long Island.
Stefan Vincent had spent years collecting vintage barber gear. His grandfather and great-uncle were barbers who came over from Italy and set up shop in Brooklyn. When he was old enough to shave, he inherited their straight razors and strops. That obsession never fully left.
By 2013, the bathroom cabinet was overflowing. Aftershaves, shaving soaps, brushes, straight razors in boxes that multiplied on their own. When everything available on the market stopped being good enough, he started making his own. Small batches. Formulated from scratch. Given away as gifts that Christmas.
Someone in the wet shaving community caught wind of it. Asked to buy some. Then more people. Then more.
The name came from cowboy action shooting. Real black powder shooters — the ones who refused to switch to modern propellants — had a name for what they loaded into their six-shooters and lever actions: The Holy Black. Stefan heard it once and knew that was the name.
When Matt saw his brother drowning in production, he jumped in. They had been building things together since they were kids. Clubhouses, businesses, communities. The Holy Black was just the next build. They moved out of their mother's basement, grew the product line, and built an audience from scratch on social media, one honest post at a time.
Today, The Holy Black Trading Co makes hair, shaving, and beard products formulated from scratch in New York. Every formula was built intentionally. Nothing licensed, nothing private-labeled. The Aftershave Tonic is pulled from a 1937 barber formula. The High Shine Pomade was the first thing Stefan ever put in a bottle. The shaving soaps are still hand-poured in-house.
The barbershop came later. They found the right space: a 1932 building in Lindenhurst, New York that had been a funeral parlor. Under the carpet were original white oak floors. Behind the drop ceilings, original tin. They stripped it down and built it back up, including a hand-laid mosaic entryway floor that Stefan taught himself how to make. It has been open since 2022.
Alongside the store and the shop, The Order of The Holy Black exists as a separate thing entirely. A 501(c)(10) fraternal organization for men. Monthly dues, chapters in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. Focused on community, men's mental health, and the idea that men do better when they are connected to something real.
The Holy Black Trading Co is Stefan and Matt and the people who have been buying these products for over a decade. Built from scratch. Stays that way.