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Antonio Brown worked at six barbershops and decided to open his own storefront. ABC Action News reports he is the founder of Central Station Barbershop and Grooming in St. Petersburg, FL. The decision to open his own shop was driven by a desire to have ownership and forge a legacy. “Seeing the things that were impacting our community, I understood the importance of ownership and entrepreneurship and different things like that,” he reflected, according to ABC Action News. “So, I wanted to step out on my own and build my own reputation and my own barbershop my way.” For nine years Central Station Barbershop and Grooming has been making its mark in the community through services that include haircuts, beard trims, hot shaves, and facials for men and women. “We have a safe space here,” Brown told the outlet. “This is a place where a barber and a client have an opportunity to have one-on-one time.” The business is also attached to a higher calling. Per the business’ website, children can...
Former University of South Carolina (USC) basketball player B.J. Mack has made his father’s entrepreneurial dreams a reality. According to the USC student newspaper The Daily Gamecock, his father, Brian, had once owned and operated a barbershop years ago that was centered around his interest in basketball. However, Brian was displaced from the business after 26 years because of highway construction in the area. B.J., who was raised in the barbershop, wanted to restore his father’s vision, NBC’s WCNC in Charlotte, NC, reports. “I’m a sports and entertainment management major, so … I came to them with the idea of, ‘Hey, since I know you really want to do a barbershop, you’ve been talking about it for pretty much 20 years of my life, why not be able to help you out with it?'” B.J. explained, per WCNC. On June 29, 2024, House of Hoops Barbershop launched near downtown Charlotte, and it led a charity shoe drive for the community at its grand opening. What’s more, the venture was...
The year was 2002, and moviegoers were introduced to what would become a Black movie universe with the release of “Barbershop.” The film centered around the importance of communal gathering through a local institutional staple, the Black barbershop. In it, we see the struggles of entrepreneurship, the importance of relationships, an exposition of gender equity, and an emphatic acknowledgment of Black cultural norms. Among the many characters in the film, one of the most memorable was “Eddie,” portrayed by Cedric The Entertainer. However, the audacious and opinionated onscreen uncle we all grew to love almost didn’t come to life in the same way. Born Cedric Antonio Kyles, Cedric The Entertainer started his career as a stand-up comedian gaining some acclaim as the host of BET’s “Comic View.” From there, his career would blossom as he became a co-star of the WB’s “The Steve Harvey Show” as well as a co-headliner on the comedic tour and movie “The Kings of Comedy,” with Steve Harvey, DL...
Women’s History Month may have concluded, but Black Girl Magic is still alive and well. Shannon Jackson made history in the Benson neighborhood of Omaha, NE by opening Heavi Hitters – the first Black fully woman-owned and operated barbershop . “We’re all different ethnicities, and we’re all women,” said Alia Jackson, a cosmetologist and professional makeup artist. “It’s given our clients, a different perspective of life, being in a male-dominated world,” hairstylist Ayanna Carfield said. According to local news outlet , KETV 7, the full-service barbershop has seen consistent growth since opening in 2019. Because of that rapid growth, Heavi Hitters ran out of space, which led to their move to their current spot-on Maple Street in the Benson community. Jackson and her team of cosmetologists are making sure that their space is inclusive for all no matter their background. This level of inclusivity is seen even in the type of services that Heavi Hitters offers. Heavi Hitters is not your...
It’s one thing to launch a business, but a whole other thing when that business is in an industry that is highly competitive and hard for startups to scale. During this week’s episode of AfroTech’s Black Tech Green Money podcast, host Will Lucas walks us through navigating spaces in the beauty, barber, and wellness industries. Lucas speaks with both Courtney Adeleye, Founder and CEO of The Mane Choice, as well as Squire co-founders Songe LaRon and Dave Salvant about some of the things they’ve witnessed firsthand as leaders in their respective industries.
Black mental health matters, and this is proof. For Black men, the barbershop has been a safe space to open up and vent about what’s going on inside, which is why Lorenzo Lewis created The Confess Project, America’s first mental health barbershop movement. The organization is on a mission to advocate for mental health by training barbers in the field. According to KARK, b ecause of its outstanding efforts, the nonprofit was honored by Rainwater, Holton & Sexton with not only the Difference Makers Award but a donation of $1,000.
Although he got his first gig in a bathroom at Renaissance High School in Detroit, MI, it seems as though 16-year-old Cameron Tucker will go far. Tucker first picked up cutting hair over the summer after learning the basics from his Uncle Tuck, according to FOX 2. Later on, what started as cutting his younger cousins’ and friends’ hair, as well as posting his skills on social media transformed into a successful business of servicing his football teammates and fellow classmates. That successful business also made it into the school year as the outlet reports that Cameron was caught cutting his clientele of classmates’ hair in the bathroom during study hall. “I want to say wrong time, wrong place,” he told FOX 2. A phone call was made to Tucker’s mother, Cassandra, and unfortunately, Cameron was given a one-day suspension for his entrepreneurial moves as the “bathroom barber,” but those moves couldn’t keep him down for long. While Tucker will no longer be cutting hair at school, it...
With over 100,000 new subscribers every month, TechCrunch reports theCut is transforming the landscape for barbers across the country. Founded in 2016 by Obi Omile Jr. and Kush Patel, the tech software is designed to create a more efficient process for barbers and improve the customer experience. “Kush and I both had terrible experiences with haircuts, and decided to build an app to help find good barbers,” Omile said. “We found there were great barbers, but no way to discover them. You can do a Google search, but it doesn’t list the individual barber. With theCut, you can discover an individual barber and discover if they are a great fit for you and won’t screw up your hair,” Omile Jr. shared, according to TechCrunch.
Barbershop scheduling app SQUIRE continues to grow amid its success with users according to its latest funding round. A press release reports that SQUIRE Technologies, Inc. — the only full scale barbershop management and POS system of its kind — has raised a $60 million Series D, bringing its total raised since launching to roughly $165 million, thus tripling its valuation to $750 million overall. The funding round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from existing investors such as ICONIQ Capital, Charles River Ventures and Trinity Ventures. Since 2015, SQUIRE has been offering its unique slate of services to benefit shop owners looking to scale their businesses and clientele, allowing them to cut back on time spent managing back office operations. With its new funding, the company plans to expand its engineering teams and increase sales as it continues to grow exponentially beyond its existing markets. “Our software helps our customers with nearly every workflow in their...
When Kyle Parker began attending a predominantly white institution (PWI), he quickly realized that getting a decent haircut would be a challenge. In his predominantly white college town, there were no Black barbers. In fact, the closest Black barber was two hours away by car. The ordeal seriously impacted his mental health as he wasn’t able to look and feel his best. He also realized that other Black students were probably facing the same challenges, so he began dreaming up a solution. “Being African-American, I didn’t have the option to walk down the street to my favorite, affordable barbershop while attending Grinnell College in Iowa. The barbershop was a large part of my culture that was missing and became a factor in why I transferred after 3 years. Wherever I decided to attend, I had to have an equal chance to a great barber as most of my classmates. I knew it would tremendously help my mental health,” Parker told AfroTech. He eventually transferred out of Grinnell College but...
When worldwide lockdowns began, one of the first things to close were hair salons. But what if you had a mobile barbershop that came to you to give you a haircut — a barbershop that was fully “COVID-compliant,” that would pull up at or near your home, and still deliver quality service? TRIM-IT founder Darren Tenkorang probably didn’t envision a pandemic shutting down the world when he first founded his mobile barbershop company. In fact, he told Forbes that his initial idea was simply to create an app that would dispatch a barber on demand — like Uber or Lyft, but for haircuts. Then he realized that the customer service — and accountability — still left much to be desired. So he stepped up his game by renovating the back of a van to make it look like a salon, painted the van with his logo, and his idea was truly able to take off. Even before COVID-19 closed down the outside, people were using the app to book mobile barbershop appointments at their home, their office, and even their...