Chelsea Langevin – Senior reporter. Before he clicks on the clippers, he studies your head — the contours, the flow of the hair and the hairline. Then he begins.
Junior business and communication arts major Taylor Avritt has been buzzing men’s hair since his sophomore year of high school, when a friend on the football team needed a haircut and didn’t want to make an appointment at a barbershop.
By his senior year, Avritt had his entire high school football team lined up for fades — a popular type of hair style.
“As I met more people, I would say, ‘Hey, I could cut your hair,’ and it was like a domino effect,” Avritt said.
Avritt’s grandmother recognized his growing passion for cutting hair and bought him his first pair of clippers as a graduation present, Avritt said. She told Avritt the clippers were for his college haircutting business.
“My marketing approach [has been] giving people their first haircut free,” Avritt said. “If they like it, they can come back.”
Avritt said everyone started coming back by the end of his freshman year.
Like any good roommate, junior David Lee was Avritt’s first college client and has been Avritt’s greatest promoter since then.
“David is my number one salesman — he is not only adding to my clientele, but also to my friends,” Avritt said.
Throughout his college career, Avritt has transformed college residence hall common areas into mini barbershops.
During his freshman year, Avritt had his clients meet him for haircuts in the Anderson Hall bathroom. Sophomore year, Avritt cut hair in the Miller Hall kitchen. This year, his house on Davis Street is commonly referred to as “The Barbershop” by members of the basketball and football teams.
Finding a barber in town who can give you the right haircut and won’t cost you most of your work-study check is nearly impossible. But at just $5 a pop, Avritt has undercut the competition.
Not only is cutting hair a release from the monotony of Avritt’s school, work study and football routine, it is also a time for him to see his friends, he said.
“I’ve actually made friends basically cutting hair,” he said.
Each client has his own custom cut, Avritt said. And, while some customers request specific haircuts, Avritt said he prefers to cut hair based on the shape of a person’s face.
“I really just cut hair to what I feel looks good,” he said.
Avritt began cutting hair knowing how to create the basic popular styles, such as “the fade,” “the uptown fade” and the “Army-style fade.”
Recently, however, Avritt has improvised for special requests for styles, such as a faded Mohawk or a double-line haircut, in which the barber traces the outer line of the hair and cuts another line into the hair.
“I’ve never told any customers that it was the first time I had done the style, and, thankfully, they’ve all been happy with their haircuts,” he said.
Senior Tommy George is Avritt’s football teammate and a new customer at “The Barbershop.”
“It was nice that he knew exactly what kind of haircut I wanted,” George said.
George said he plans to return to Avritt for cuts in the future because he is easy to get along with and knows what he is doing.
“I would rather get a haircut from him than from someone I do not know in town,” he said. “Not to mention, he does a better job than anyone I have been to in town.”
Even while balancing two work-study jobs, a full class schedule and football practice, Avritt said he manages to fit in two to three appointments a week.
“It’s great pocket money,” he said.
Not only is Avritt a great barber, he is an excellent football player, George said.
“What makes Taylor unique as a football player is that you can see how much he loves the game by the way he carries himself,” he said.
Avritt said that football can sometimes be rough, but his love of the game outweighs the hardships.
“The satisfaction of accomplishing something during the game is so much greater than the difficulties,” he said.
When he is not rushing from class to work or practice, Avritt said he can be found in his garage buzzing someone’s hair.
“I always tell people that a person’s head is my canvas,” he said.
If you are interested in contacting Avritt for a haircut, e-mail him at [email protected].