On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the within of Houston Metropolis Faculty’s (previously Houston Neighborhood Faculty) Barbering Division is a bevy of exercise. This is among the program’s distinctive elements.
On these two days, the hum of clippers and the low murmur of dialog fill the air inside a classroom, as college students give free haircuts to group members. In flip, these future stylists obtain their coaching for a profession in barbering within the course of.
An extended line of individuals snaked down the hallway as college students, staff, and residents from throughout town waited for haircuts. Inside, rows of younger barbers-in-training bent over their shoppers with care and focus.
“This program is for folks not essentially searching for a level, however perhaps a commerce,” mentioned Renee Nelson, an HCC barber teacher who has taught within the division for 3 years. “You be taught all issues right here, from straight hair, curly hair, lengthy hair, brief hair; we educate all of it. Every thing’s hands-on; it’s a fast-paced studying program. You are available, and within the first two weeks, we’re slicing hair already.”
Nelson, who additionally runs her personal enterprise, Royal Dreads, balances instructing with operating her store.
“I discover pleasure in getting as much as go to my store and do hair. I discover pleasure in coming as much as HCC and doing hair,” Nelson mentioned. “I simply discovered ardour.”
Constructing abilities and group
HCC’s barbering program provides a one-year, two-semester pathway for college students in search of knowledgeable license via the Texas Division of Licensing and Regulation. The primary semester introduces college students to instruments, strategies, and security practices, whereas the second semester delves into superior styling, facials, manicures, and chemical therapies, comparable to perms and dyes.
This system’s spotlight, nevertheless, is its Free Haircut Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when college students achieve hands-on expertise by serving the general public.
Teacher Hanna Dewberry mentioned the periods additionally convey life classes into the classroom.
“Your barber is normally your therapist,” Dewberry mentioned. “We hear a whole lot of life tales and testimonies. They make my coronary heart soften. These guys discover group in right here with one another. They see the identical faces each different week. We’re working wonders in the neighborhood, it being free.”
Dewberry, who graduated from the identical program she now teaches, mentioned HCC’s construction units it aside. Courses begin at eight, reviewing assignments and terminology taught in earlier classes.
“We go over ebook work and get them [students] aware of terminology and totally different programs and sanitation,” she mentioned. “As soon as we go over that and do workforce or particular person assignments, we swap over to the opposite half of our day, which might entail us really taking shoppers and doing hands-on coaching.”
A commerce rooted in tradition
Barbering, particularly in Black communities, has at all times been greater than only a service; it has been a cultural expression. College students and instructors mentioned the commerce is seated in storytelling and identification.
“In the event you return in historical past, we spoke via hair, via the totally different patterns and designs that we wore our hair,” Nelson mentioned. “African hair has been round from us sporting nappy fros to us entering into the relaxers and straightening it out. Again within the day, you had locks. You wouldn’t see an individual like me in this kind of place. So we’ve come a good distance when it comes right down to our hair.”
Dewberry added that this system delves into the ebook Milady Commonplace Barbering, which explores the historical past of barbering.
The economics of self-determination
Whereas some see barbering as a fallback, each instructors describe it as a basis for entrepreneurship.
“It’s essential to have one thing that belongs to you in addition to one thing that appears extra like a profession,” Dewberry mentioned. “With levels, like HVAC [Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning]. Barbering, cosmetology, electrician…it’s your commerce, and nobody can take that from you. The barbering program teaches you to be unbiased, be your personal boss, and set your personal schedule.”
This system additionally emphasizes enterprise literacy. College students be taught advertising and marketing, pricing, and customer support abilities which have develop into important within the age of Instagram and TikTok.
“I see folks posting their haircuts, their completed product. It’s all about your creativity and ingenuity to advertise your self,” Nelson mentioned. “That’s the place that confidence is available in.”
Mathis Hollis, a pupil in this system, joined it straight out of highschool after rising up watching his father, a barber within the Fifth Ward, at work.
“After commencement, I’m anticipated to be fluent in not solely slicing hair, however styling hair, doing manicures, facials, and being expert at my complete craft,” Hollis mentioned. “I would work someplace first to construct a clientele after which begin my very own enterprise. My dad had his personal store, and I wish to carry it and observe in these footsteps.”
One other pupil, Anaiyah Harris, mentioned this system gave her a renewed sense of goal. She recalled being at residence at some point and feeling decided to pursue a profession she liked.
“I used to be slicing my homeboy’s hair simply to get a observe of it,” Harris mentioned. “I got here right here and it actually helped me out. The toughest half is the dying, the chemical stuff. You gotta learn to work, to not burn anyone.”
For shoppers like one longtime participant, the expertise is simply as rewarding.
“This helps individuals who could also be mild on funds or need to make a very good impression for a job,” mentioned Ken Lane, a former pupil at HCC who was getting a haircut. “I’ve been coming right here for the final three years. The scholars are skilled, and the cuts are at all times stable.”
AI-proof jobs
As synthetic intelligence threatens to automate numerous industries, each instructors mentioned barbering stays one of many few actually human-proof trades.
“I don’t suppose AI is gonna come for us, as a result of everyone’s head form is totally different, hair texture is totally different,” Nelson mentioned. “I’m not nervous about AI in any respect. Hair is gonna at all times be round.”
DeBerry echoed that sentiment.
“You need to be forward of the curve and learn to maneuver and pivot,” Dewberry mentioned. “AI is taking a whole lot of positions, however human abilities and human trades it simply can’t change.”
