The Experienced Barber
Podcast
My journey as a barber began at the age of 12. During this time I used to get my haircut every week. Like most young boys at this time I began to take an interest in females and during this era of my life, fashion and your look at school amongst your peers was very important and because of this my parents said that it was to costly for me to keep my haircut weekly and this is when my mother attempted to cut my hair which did not go well at all. So I asked a older kid in our neighborhood that I knew cut hair as a hobby if he could fade me up and from there I began to take an interest in cutting my own because it seemed simple enough especially given that during the 1990s there was a style called the bowl cut that we would sport. I asked my father for a pair of clippers and this was my first attempt at cutting my hair into this bowl style. Which I accomplished fairly easily. From here I began to go back to the barbershop to get a fade so I can come home and mimic and copy what I saw the barber doing to my hair. After a few attempts at cutting my own hair I saw improvements time after time as I would cut my hair every few days to make sure I always had a fresh fade and edge up. After a few weeks of this I began to cut friends of mine around the neighborhood and school and teammates on the basketball team as well as family members. My skills developed quickly and I became well versed in many styles from the basic fade to the hightop fade to the Afro with a taper and basic parts and hair designs that were popular during the 1990s. Fast forward the next 4yrs to my high school graduation 1996 which is also the year I began Barber college and the following year I start working in my first ever barbershop in 1997. The feeling I had to finally be a professional barber was something I still to this day feel grateful to God for and take so much pride in knowing that this will be what I do to provide for my family and myself for the next few decades. In addition to me finding my love of cutting hair and being a barber I have also started a product accessory line that the entire Barber industry has adopted and now all Barbers all over the world use it and I’m so proud to have played a part in this. The product I’m speaking of is the FADE PAD. I first launched this product back in 2006 after I noticed that all barbers use a towel on their stations to place their clippers. Trimmers. And implements on while servicing a client. I thought it would be awesome if we had a pad or a mat for our stations to place our implements on with a logo representing barbers. So I began to do some research and I found a company that could manufacture these pads for me. This was very exciting but back on in 2006 we didn’t have social media or Amazon like we do today. So I needed to find a way to get my product into the hands of barbers beyond where I was locally. This is when I reached out to a long time barber supplier that I’ve been using all of my barber career Atlanta Barber Supply, they were so kind to give me an opportunity by carrying my product and selling it in their physical catalogue that we used to receive from them with all the products they offer barbers. Now today there are so many companies that have these barber mats on our stations with their own logos to further their brand. This makes me so happy to see how barbers are doing things beyond the chair and also to know that the idea I had. Indeed was a good and logical one that is still being used today and will continue to be used by Barber forever. Now that you know about me as a barber and how I began and something I have contributed to our industry I’d like to share some of my life experiences as a barber with new Barbers/ Barber students and those that are interested in becoming a barber in the future. In this Blog my heart is to share things that can keep giving for years to come. I will share what I believe to be wisdom that will hopefully make your journey as a barber more pleasant. I believe the things I share here will benefit you as a barber for the long haul. I say this because when I was in Barber school we had a paper posted on the wall with a list of professions, and the Barber was at the top of that list as something one can do far beyond 50 plus years. If you believe that you have found Barbering as the profession that you love and enjoy everything about it. Thank you for allowing me to assist you by sharing the wisdom that has worked for me through the years.
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The Experienced Barber