East Lansing Marine Veteran Builds Military Community Through Spartans Edge Barbershop

What started as an act of rebellion grew into two businesses. 

James Robert Beaubien, owner of Spartans Edge Barbershop downtown, vowed not to shave his beard after leaving the Marine Corps in 2014, only to discover the itchiness was unbearable. 

“I was itching sores in my face from the constant dryness,” Beaubien said. 

After serving in the Marine Corps, Beaubien enrolled at Michigan State University. He took it upon himself to create his own beard oil while simultaneously taking classes, attending club football practices, participating in the fisheries and wildlife club, and joining a fraternity.

In between all his obligations, Beaubien would venture back to the duplex he lived in and work to perfect his beard oil formula, researching plant-based ingredients and meticulously taking note of each ingredient and portions of each test batch. 

“I went through three to four batches where I didn’t like it [oil] because it wasn’t absorbing or it was really slimy…I mixed a bunch of stuff together till I found a good concoction I liked,” Beaubien said. 

He started selling the oil to classmates for $15 when his now wife, then girlfriend, encouraged him to turn his oil into a business. Unsure of where to start, he Googled “How to start a business in Michigan.” 

“I just went down a checklist and built it from there,” Beaubien said. 

Soon after, JimBob’s Grizzly Beard Care was born.

While building his business, Beaubien was struggling with reintegrating into society after being in the Marine Corps for four years.

Beaubien comes from a family of veterans; both of his grandfathers were World War 2 Navy veterans, and the stories he heard ignited a longing to serve in the military.

Beaubien enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2009, and was eventually stationed in Okinawa, a small island off the coast of Japan. He spent four years there and was never deployed to combat. 

Military members who are deployed to combat receive specialized assistance afterwards to help reintegrate them back into society, Beaubien explained. But if you aren’t deployed, you typically only receive basic information, like how to apply to college and a job.

“They throw you out into the public, and honestly, I think that’s why veteran suicides are high,” Beaubien said. “I had those thoughts myself, and I didn’t deploy. You feel isolated from the community because you’re not a part of it anymore.”

Joining a fraternity provided a similar sense of community and brotherhood that he had in the Marine Corps, but after graduation, Beaubien lost that too. 

“It was after college when I didn’t have a group at all…You feel like nobody understands you, and it got real lonely,” he said.

By 2019, he had graduated and was pouring effort into JimBob’s Grizzly Beard Care. NASCAR truck racer Spencer Boyd reached out to Beaubien on Instagram, asking if JimBob’s Grizzly Beard Care would sponsor him because he liked the business’ values and that it was vet-owned. Beaubien said the partnership has become great exposure for his company.

“It was a pretty cool introduction into that world and marketing,” he said.

Also in 2019, Beaubien decided to go to barber school. 

He met several other former veterans there and instantly clicked with them. The more Beaubien got involved with the barber community and cutting hair, the better he felt.

Beaubien worked at a barber shop from 2021 to 2023, before deciding to open his own shop, Spartans Edge Barbershop, in 2024.

A few months after opening, he met David Chingman, a former Marine who was also stationed in Okinawa and in barber school. Shortly after meeting, Chingman joined the Spartans Edge team.

The two came up with the idea of free haircuts for veterans this upcoming Veterans Day on Nov. 11. Beaubien, Chingman, alongside two other barbers, hope to do a total of 64 haircuts, 16 per barber. 

Spartans Edge Barbershop is also teaming up with Saddleback BBQ; everyone who gets a haircut on Nov. 11 will also receive free pizza from Slice by Saddleback BBQ.

While haircuts for veterans are free for the holiday, Spartans Edge regularly offers discounts to first responders and vets.

“We offer the biggest discount for veterans and first responders…because we prefer their company,” Beaubien said.

“If we do a free haircut on Veterans Day, it’ll bring a spotlight to the shop and let people know we’re here…It doesn’t matter if they just got out or they were [World War 2] vets, you have that in common, you can spark a conversation with any of them from any branch.”