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).