Makin' Some Noise

I thought, "Maybe I can make it if I never give in.
I've been down before, I ain't going down again."
I'm makin' some noise
I've been a working boy
Up at the top of my voice, sayin'
"Look at me, momma, I'm makin' some noise"

Life's been full. I'm at 1100 hours out of 1500 in barber school since last I wrote. I've done 7 Pop-ups in the last 5 weeks, with about 8 more planned for August. I was recruited into an apprenticeship with a mobile shop that's been running about 8 years (after observing me do a kid's haircut in the park), marking my first gig as a barber all of the sudden after kinda manifesting that last post.

Traffic in barber school has been kinda slow. We serve a lot of seniors and the air quality up until literally today has been hovering around Backwoods all week last week, with it lightening to a Marlboro Ultra Light over the weekend finally. When people come out, I'm now kinda in the flow taking clients all day. I have a client who texts me a few days ahead of when he's coming into the shop for a facial and a haircut over his lunch hour (note to self: do towels first-thing tomorrow). I have a few regulars and some prefer to wait for me to take them than take an available barber. In a walk-in, no-appointment shop, that feels pretty good, ngl. As former high schoolers are spending full days at barber school with me to finish up their licenses, it's been a lot of fun getting to know my classmates better.

The community around Cary's Lounge is a real gift. I've had great experiences doing haircuts there and between a few local bands and DJs, their story nights like The Wild Night and trivia night ("quizzo" if you're reading this in Philly), I'm really glad to have finally found my bar. It's not even low-key amazing bootstrapping energy, with everyone JFDI'ing it and helping each other along the way. They just happen to pour Malort and have a little biergarten in the back too.

There's still more. Let's get into it!

I pulled off at least one pop-up a week every week over the last 6 weeks. I made the right call about not going out to set up on two Saturdays it poured; otherwise I had four good pop-ups in Portage Park where I take a couple of haircuts but pass out a lot of business cards with people recognizing me and interested in getting a haircut sometime. I always wait for them to ask if I have a card. I love having it in my wallet ready to go.

I've done two pop-ups at bars. Last month at Happy Day Tavern, I took an old buddy from ORDCamp (2013 maybe?) in the chair around 9pm. When I finished, I took this young man whose bath time was on hold for a free haircut 😄

Two weeks later, in barber school, Erskine (the namesake of the barber school) spent a full day walking a small group of us students through a hair replacement approach called manweaving. I was impressed with how he employs razor cutting to blend more delicately into the cut.

I stopped at Sistar Beauty on North Ave. to get a razor comb that takes conventional razors while I ordered the Vincent razor comb he was using. And my second cut of the night at Cary's Lounge was Hollis, whose vintage vibe called for bangs and a little bit of shaping. And voila, I'm now doing razor cutting as well as shear work as well as clippers.

The following Saturday, I set up at Portage Park. Santi, below, is among my oldest friends in Chicago, going back 25 years to the first job that moved me to Chicago to begin with. I'm so glad he's let me practice my fades, because my fades have gotten a lot better over the last five weeks.

While Santi was waiting for his turn to get in the chair, I was about 2/3 into working with a 4.5yo, who was great... but like, is 4.5yo and I was taking too long so he's be-bopping all over the place. I'm getting it done, working with the parents to manage expectations. Build trust, not trauma, etc. As I finish up, I'm approached by a woman who's runs a mobile-only shop for the last eight years on the north side of Chicago, and we get to talking... a few days later we meet for coffee and now I'm an apprentice barber, bookable on TLCforMe.net

Last week, I had my very first booked client: someone recovering from pretty major surgery who just really wanted a shave. I wasn't going to use a razor, but I have clippers and trimmers that got him smooth, and then I gave him an express facial (with the massages – who doesn't love them some tapoement?) and got himself soft and kissable. That went really well.

That was last Wednesday. Sunday morning, I did my first full razor cut to give a client a shag cut that ended up giving pixie vibes. On.Saturday when she booked, I had only seen someone do a shag haircut once. I took notes to remember my plan going into a new haircut, and a new way of cutting hair I'd not done before. It went well... also made for a good skank.

Yes, I've been making my own beats for my videos all this time. Now that I have an outlet to produce music for, I have a focus for my music production workflow and... well, who doesn't like a well organized workflow, right?