My name is Taylor. If you decide to join our academy, you will get to know me very well. I’m going to share a bit of my story. Maybe it will help you keep writing yours.

I was always very creative as a kid. There’s a picture of me in diapers “playing” guitar. I used to tinker with Nerf Guns, making them shoot hard enough to blow holes in wooden doors (sorry, Dad!). I used to draw. I’ve always been super into fashion.

In high school, I still had a lot of interests, but was never really sure what to do “forever”. I could be an engineer, after all I loved modifying those nerf guns. “Ahh, I don’t know. Seems like it could be boring”. I could be a professional musician! “No, that’s too lofty, too risky.” Well, I always was pretty good with Math, maybe I could go into finance. “Would I really like having a desk job"?”

Needless to say, there is no right answer. It is really easy to get lost in sea of options. In the age of social media, it’s also really easy to compare yourself to what others are doing and think “I’m doing something wrong”. I could go on about that, but that’s for a different time.

Fast forward to junior year of high school: I had always gotten a haircut with my mom wherever she went. I always felt a bit out of place in the salon, and never totally felt “excited” about the haircut. Finally, I got a haircut at the new barbershop down the street from school. It was like nothing I’d experienced before. I got THE coolest haircut ever. I had a fresh line-up, they used the straight razor which was mindblowing to me. They even talked to me like one of their buddies. I felt welcomed, and left feeling like I couldn’t wait to go back!

A few days later, I went on youtube trying to research how I could keep up on my edges between cuts. This led to me buying my own clippers, and messing up my own hair for a few months. One night at one of my basketball games, my teammate, Mike, said he’d like me to cut his hair. I was nervous, but I cut his hair after school one day. It actually came out pretty nice! Then I started cutting some more classmates after school. Before I knew it, I was cutting probably 10 friends a week. Next time I went to the barbershop, I asked my barber, Anthony, how I could become a barber. Well, unfortunately there’s no barber school in the area. But thankfully, he agreed to apprentice me on the side! At the time, I was serving ice cream cones until 11PM, and cutting hair seemed way cooler. So naturally, I took him up on his offer.

My parents would drop me off after school with my bookbag into the busy barbershop. Then 5 minutes later I’d be cutting a grown adult. It had to be a pretty funny sight, looking back at it. Regardless, I became obsessed. How can I do the freshest fade in the shop? When someone comes in with longer hair, I get stumped. How do I get better at that? What are the best clippers I can buy? I would scour youtube for hours, picking up anything I could.

At the time, I was a pretty awkward kid with only a couple friends. Talking to people was not natural to me. Being in the shop and talking with all walks of life truly shaped me as a young individual. I’ve developed communication skills, and a sense of empathy that I would have never had. I saw my social circle start to blossom, as I learned to understand people better.

Then, It came time to think about college. “Wait, what? College? Don’t you love barbering?”. Yes, I do. But people go to college after high school. and get a real job. That’s what they do. So I did. I went to SUNY Fredonia to study Business. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but that’s what I studied, because I could keep my options open with that major. After a year, I didn’t feel inspired, so I transferred to a small community college in Los Angeles to study music. I’ve always loved music, still do. Maybe studying in music will keep me creatively stimulated, while still getting that college degree I’ve always felt I needed.

Halfway through my first semester, I just kept thinking about barbering. I made a difference in Camillus at the barbershop. I made people happy, I was happy. I was making more money than I thought was possible at my age. I decided to drop out, and go back Syracuse to pursue barbering. But I made a promise to myself: I will open my own shop, and I will make sure this industry is taken seriously. I will not let people shove their true passions to the side like I did, because I thought the grass was greener.

How can I do that? I set a goal to one day have a shop where at least one of our barbers can make $100,000. Most barbers in the area at the time were making about half that, so it was a lofty goal… but we hit it. More on that later.

In 2015, I decided it was time to open my own shop. I knew I was a good barber. But was a I good businessman? I was scared, but excited at the same time. I decided to talk with my boss at the time, Anthony, owner of Saving Face Barbershop. Anthony is the same guy who gave me my very first haircut in the barbershop, the haircut that changed my life. I told him I’d like to open a shop. I told him it’s going to happen either way, but there’s something different that’s going on in this particular shop. I told him I’d like to open it with him. We’ve always seen eye to eye, and I’ve always had great respect for him as a leader, and businessman. Thankfully, he agreed.

In August 2016, Anthony and I launched the second installment of Saving Face: Manlius. Leading up to it, there was a whirlwind of things I had never even heard of: building permits, income projections, LLC’s, MSDS sheets, zoning etc. At 20 years old, I had never heard of half of this stuff. Thankfully, Anthony was there to help guide me through all of these important tasks. I also didn’t know the first thing about building out a space to not only look good, but be functional and also be up to code with the town. I have my family to thank for that. <3

Next step was to hire some people. A little while prior to opening, I had taken on 2 apprentices of my own, Zach and Kyle. These guys had never cut hair before. They were my buddies, and were also creative guys. It took me a while to figure out how to put cutting hair into words. Things that I have stored as muscle memory needed to be articulated in a way for people to understand them who have never even held a pair of clippers. Since they were working other jobs, and I also needed to cut hair, they could only come in a few hours a week to train. Well, after about 6 months, both of them were about ready.

Upon opening, we were busy pretty much right off the bat. Thankfully, the community took well to our shop. We got open right before the back to school rush, one of the busiest times of the year. Our cut quality and customer service was up to par for what the community wanted, so it really has been uphill from there.

Within six months, we were so busy that we needed to hire somebody else. Anthony had a lead on a girl named Nikki. She had been cutting women’s hair in the salon for many years, and was looking for a change. At this point, Saving Face had never hired a woman, nor was there many, if any women barbers in the area. Not for any reason, other than women simply had never applied! We interviewed with Nikki, and we loved her. We took her on, and she absolutely crushed it.

At this time, guys were starting to get away from the short fades and edgeups and leaning into more styled cuts. It was almost like cosmetology and barbering needed to come together to give the clients what they needed. The cosmetologists needed to learn how to fade and use the razor. The barbers needed to pick up the blowdryer and learn how to use scissors more efficiently. It’s either that, or we go extinct like barbers did in the 70’s and 80’s. With Nikki’s background in longer hair, and our know-how with short hair it became the perfect storm. People loved her work, and within a year, she became the highest earning barber in the entire company.

We’ve seen the barbering industry take a big shift in the last several years. When I first started 12 years ago, the price of a haircut was $13. Fast forward to now, and the average haircut is $30, with some shops charging more than that, even right here in Central New York. Quite simply, the demand for a quality haircut has gone up. But more than that, the demand for a quality experience has gone up. Problem is, there’s a huge shortage in supply of barbers who can do both.

In the present world where things can get ugly, people not only want to look good, but they want to feel good. The people that can offer those things can make north of $75k or even six figures. It’s not uncommon to see shops with retirement plans or insurance for their teams.

It’s one of the few jobs where there is a mutual respect between the client, and service provider. People get excited to come see you. Building positive, lasting relationships with your peers, and your clients is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

Recession proof.

Be yourself at work.