paper 1

James Jones

English 101

10/17/13

Professor Begert

How I started cutting hair

How did I learn how to cut hair? That is a good question, I learned by cutting my own hair. It started at the age of 13 in southern California, I remember when my mom would take me into a barbershop and I would sit there and get my hair done, it was such a cool process. It was cool because it felt good and it looked amazing when it was all done. When sitting in the chair I would observe the other barbers that were there and was curious on how they were cutting the hair. My mom bought me my own pair of clippers from Wal-Mart, and from there on I was cutting my own hair and learning how to do it.

There was a lot of repetition that was involved, like going to school with a crooked hair line, or going to the Baber and hearing him tell your mom that he shouldn’t cut his own hair anymore. Hearing things like that made me want to keep trying and trying until I got it down. I remember when I first cut someone’s hair other than mine, and that was my best friends. I sat him in a chair outside of my apartment in the middle of the night with a super bright porch light and cut his hair, I had my mom observe me do it. When I got done with his hair cut it was not perfect, but I did need the experience of cutting a different hair type. I did have a lot of fun cutting his hair.

I left California after I completed the 8^th grade and I was kind of nervous about my hair. So when we moved to Washington we looked for a barber nearby in Bremerton. We found a shop called TJS. I remember my mom giving me the money and she sat in the car and waited while I got my hair cut. When I was done getting my haircut and the Baber letting me look in the mirror, I knew from there I was not going to sit in another chair and get another cut again, because I was going to learn. Now learning is not so easy when it comes to using a trimmer I thought it was going to be the easiest thing ever, I was completely wrong. I ran in to problems like having to sharp of a trimmer and cutting myself, or not having a sharp crisp line.

That was my biggest pet peeve of all time because I wanted my hair to look good. As time went on people started to notice my hair and asking questions. The main question I got was “hey who cuts your hair” it looks good. When I told them I did it myself they didn’t believe me. I always go that response it was funny for a little bit, until a friend of mine asked me to cut his hair in high school for homecoming. From there on that judgment stopped happening and people would ask me too cut their hair.

Cutting hair is not an easy thing to do because it takes a lot of patience and a steady hand. As well you have to be able to work with different people and be able to take criticism. My best friends have shown me the best of both worlds and I have worked with random people that I do not even know. I have had many influences in my life to want to keep cutting hair and get better at it. I have meet and talked to barbers that have their own shop, talked to teachers that can get you your degree.

Having that feeling around the people who do haircuts well and charge at a professional price is something special. Here’s an example, I went to a barbershop and talked to a random barber and asked him “hey do you know how to cut as good as having an extremely straight hairline like Steve Harvey” now the reason why I asked him that was because I had been watching movies and TV shows that have African American actors, and there hair looks perfect a sharp and it brought to be curiosity on how they do that and how I can get my hair to look like that. I mentioned Steve Harvey to the barber because he is a well-known person and his hair was amazing when he did have hair. The first thing he said was “it is all chemically done” I was like in my head what does that mean. He then proceeded to show me the dye called bigen. Bigen Is a permanent dye that can be used on female or male and the color lasts for a month.

 I left and went home researched the product and got what I needed. I went and bought the dye and tried it on myself I was so happy with the results that I called my friend and I wanted to try it on him there are still a few things that I am learning but it is worth it because I like that outcome of a fresh haircut. Things that have also influenced me are YouTube videos of other peoples work, tutorials on how to do certain styles. Etc, plus I like the completion in the Bremerton area, there are only 2 other young barbers like me in the area that has a cliental and does great work. It pushes me to cut better and be better and have knowledge of things that the other barbers do not have, I research different ways of cutting hair from the other side of the county, mainly the south.

I plan on making a career out of cutting hair and becoming a professional barber and opening up my own shop. I know the steps that I need to take and what degree and courses that I need to take in order to be successful with my goal.