After school, he struts into his home, wearing baggy jeans and a dapper polo, consuming pure latino aura. He zips by the game console, ignoring all of his friends blowing up his phone, picks up a pair of clippers and gets to do what he does best.
Sophomore Alex Rodriguez, a Latino student, is a teen barber that has already accomplished a lot and keeps setting the bar high. At 15 years old he is already working on his path to his major career and has lots of clients but owning a business at such a young age has caused some roadblocks as he openly describes, “There were lots of times where I would compare myself to other barbers and compare my haircut and be, like,oh I want my haircuts to be like that. So I would message them and ask them questions about how they did stuff, and when I couldn’t do the cuts exactly how they did, or my haircuts didn’t come out exactly how theirs did, that really discouraged me. There’s many times I wanted to quit because of how I didn’t like my haircuts coming out.” In order for him to accomplish being a teen barber he has to advocate for himself: “What I do is I like to put myself out there. So whenever I ask people, if you need a haircut, I say come to me. And I would just tell them all the services I have, and they like my prices. Prices are a big thing, and why people come to me is mostly the quality of the haircut. I also recently just started selling snacks, or putting snacks into the barber shop. And I always blast music, and I always ask the clients what kind of music they want to put on.”
With being successful more than other teens, he reflects on dealing with doubters and haters saying,“I Just let the haters say what they want to say, because at the end of the day, I’m the one who’s making money and doing something with my life, and it means a lot being able to do things for yourself while other people try to put you down.”“My goals for being a barber is, I want to be successful with being a barber. I want to have a lot of clients and be booked out each and every day and just try to improve myself and hopefully get into a shop and make even more money than I already do.”
His connection to his family and independence has helped Alex come a long way, saying,
“A big person who inspired me to become a barber is my sister. She graduated from barber school and now is currently in a barber shop, and she has given me lots of opportunities to meet with new barbers, and they help me and figure out what I have to do to become a better Barber. I also watched lots of YouTube videos and classes when I was younger, and those youtubers made being a barber look so fun.” But when it’s not fun, he expresses that he is grateful to have a twin brother. He helps him not feel lonely and provides similar connections.
All of his dedication of putting himself out there and building trust has led to no arguments over pricing as he exclaims, “No, I don’t think there’d be any beef because lots of my clients tell me that my prices are too low for the quality I provide. They think that I should raise them. So I think that if I did raise my prices, my clients will still be coming to me because they think I do a nice job with their hair.”
Alex will continue to be a young successful entrepreneur as his quality is rising. Wherever this path will take him he will always have his Latino swagger to lead him in the right direction. With clippers in hand, he will be ready for his next client. Need a cut?
