Sunday, April 25, 2021

Back in the day

 I remember when I started this profession, I was a young kid from a project, living with my mother and my brother. By that time; to be honest, I had no idea that I’d  become a barber. I was dedicated to school and basketball! Yes that was my main goal at that age, be like Mike “every body wants be like Mike”  I was always at the cancha jugando tres pa tres (at the court playing three for three). Always the same group, Omar, Neftali, Manny, Jonathan, Bacalao, Alex, and me, en la cancha del I. Those were my friends, my bodies, and actually one of them, Omar; he was the one who started with the barber thing, and I was his first customer, well testing model, I didn’t pay for the cut. I mean, he was literally practicing with me. But it end up being good! So there came the second haircut, and the third, and so on. Yes, he become a barber, and he was doing it in his dad apartment. That gave me an inspiration, and I thought; if he can make some money out of this, I thought, I could do it too!!

Well, I went to Omar and talked to him about my idea, and let him know that I was about to start to do the same as he was, that we could start something together. To what he replied “first thing first, you should practice with someone else, because I won’t be your experiment” HaHaHa could you believe this? I was his experiment at first, when he decided to use me, well he was like an older brother to me. I guess that what we do, because that took me to my next move; my youngest brother! Yes, he was my first clown, I mean client. My first haircut was so bad, that he ended up using a hat for almost a month, I believe that he didn’t took that hat off even for a shower. But I wait for that hair to grow back again, and here I was telling my young brother nicely “that he better let me do it again” like I said, nicely. I was 14 and he was 10, there was a some kind of influence in my words and gestures, but nothing to worry about. So, getting back to the point, this second haircut wasn’t that bad, at all. It was a good fade! Just with some details like the hairline was a little crooked, but fine! So I kept going with the idea, and I also became a Barber, like my good friend Omar. 

Him and I never work together, we kept been friends, playin basketball and everything else but he like his own space and to be honest I liked mine too. Well I'm still in this business and I have no idea if Omar too, the only thing I know is; that I'm proud to be a Barber from the hood, grew up in one of the most colorful projects in Puerto Rico, and with the most beautiful people of my Island (MAP).

Thursday, March 26, 2020

CLIPPER ARTISTS


@snow_barber


Nosotros los barberos somos artistas, amamos lo que hacemos aunque hay veces que puede ser agotador y estresante. Yo comencé a mediado de los 90 cuando tenía 14 o 15 años de edad, en el apartamento de un residencial de San Juan, PR. mi primera victima, mi hermano. Probablemente "lo mate" (lo recorte mal) como jocosamente le decimos en Puerto Rico, un pal de veces. Pero no me deje, segui hasta que lo logre, valga aclarar que no habia cursos online en You Tube, (lo que es excelente) bueno no existía YouTube así que todo era a pulso, y con navajas Gillette para los cerquillos, y los fades afeitados, si mano "Gillette" y para ese tiempo la mayoría de los recortes eran fades afeitados. Pero ya a la edad de 16 estaba haciendo mi propio dinero,sin la necesidad de seguir sangrando el bolsillo de "mi vieja". Con clientela fija de Jueves a Sábado, otros días por cita previa. ocasionalmente. Hoy dia sigo la carrera; trabajo en NJ con BarberzInc, aunque he logrado otras cosas entre medio, la barberia sigue siendo mi pasión.

La barbería ha trascendido a un mundo totalmente diferente a cuando yo comencé, la tecnología ha provocado nuestra evolución, dejando ver al mundo nuestro arte. 


Vean este videos para que vean a lo que a trascendido esta industria:


@arod23pr video


Es probable que ya muchos de ustedes conozcan a A Rod, un talento boricua que ademas de ser barbero se ha dado a conocer a través de las redes sociales haciendo videos de todo lo que esta trending en la industria y parodias que no están lejos de la realidad. Y así como A Rod hay otros talentos que se han dado a conocer en las redes. Hoy dia esto es lo que esta trending, no solamente recortar, estamos hablando de diseños, dibujos, lineas, tipos de recortes fashion, etc. Y todo pasa por el filtro de la cámara, así sea de tu teléfono, o con camarografo profesional, e incluso ya algunos barberos cuentan con su propio equipo de cámara profesional para grabar, como Papito Blessedhands, otro boricua resaltando no solo lo que hacemos, si no que también esta ofreciendo talleres acerca de la industria!


Esto es solo el comienzo de lo que les quiero mostrar a travez de este blog, (un piscolabi). Tengo un repertorio de ideas que estoy formulando gracias por el soporte y esperen mas de esta industria que sigue creciendo y evolucionando. 

Back in the day

 I remember when I started this profession, I was a young kid from a project, living with my mother and my brother. By that time; to be hone...