starting off as a hobby only a year ago, barbering has quickly become a passion and career aspiration for senior Brandon C. as he now has plans to get his barbering license after he graduates from Galileo, open his own shop and become known as one of the best barbers in the city.
Brandon’s dreams of barbering started when Brandon was looking for something more to occupy his time. Brandon’s barber, Anthony, suggested he should try cutting hair.In the beginning, barbering was something Brandon didn’t take seriously and was just something to experiment with on his friends.
However when Brandon realized he had some natural talent at barbering, he started cutting hair more earnestly and improved a lot through watching videos. He actually learned through the mistakes he made from messing up a lot on his first clients. He says “at first I was messing up a lot by messing up clients eyebrows and mustaches, and messing up the trims. Those mistakes helped me improve my tactics for barbering.”
Brandon’s very first client, senior Jeward T., was skeptical at first, but decided to take a risk on Brandon. Jeward said, “I felt scared because I thought he was going to mess me up, I trusted him and it came out pretty good.”
Now that he is more established as a barber, Brandon spends most of his Saturdays cutting hair at his friends houses, with a list of over 15 customers, and charging between $15-20 a cut.
In addition to sharpening his skills as a barber, Brandon is also entertained from getting to have a conversation with his clients while he is cutting hair. He likes getting to know new clients so they feel comfortable and keep coming back to get haircuts from him.
What Brandon least enjoys about being a barber is that it takes a lot of time and effort to improve his skills. He’s looking to get better at some of the small things, like his scissor work, but that has been difficult the past few months because being on the football team has given him less free time.
Clients so far have had nothing but good things to say about Brandon. Senior Bosco T. said, “I started getting haircuts from Brandon because my friends said he’s a good barber and I wanted to see. I keep on going to him because they come out good, and they’re cheap.”
