Convos with Calvin: A Fifth Grade Interviewing Initiative
On October 3rd, Angie Debo was fortunate enough to have a barber volunteer his time and expertise to provide haircuts for boys right before picture day. I was able to sit down and interview him. Our conversation is below:
Q. What is your name?
A. Clayton or Clay for short
Q. How old are you?
A. 24
Q. What do you do?
A. I’m a licensed barber; I cut hair all day - this is what I do all day.
Q. What’s the name of the shop you work at?
A. Fade N Up; it’s on 63rd and May.
Q.How did you start cutting hair?
A. I couldn’t afford my own haircut, so I picked up my dad’s clippers, and I just started doing it myself.
Q. What time do you start and end work?
A. I start at 9:30 and at 3:00.
Q. How long did it take you to get to a professional level?
A. It took one year; that’s how long school is for this.
Q. What do you love about what you do?
A. Leaving a smile on people’s faces afterwards. It makes you feel good about yourself.
Q. How old are your clients?
A. I do all ages, as long as they can sit still.
Q. What made you want to offer your services to Angie Debo today?
A. Well, my son goes to school here, and I remember when I was a kid, and I didn’t have the best haircut for the yearbook, it kind of scarred me. And everyone does back-to-school cuts, but no one does picture day cuts. Picture day is more important than back-to-school to me; it’s what lasts.
Q. Have you serviced any other schools recently?
A. We did our back-to-school haircuts at Spencer High School.
Q. Was that available to the public or just Spencer High School students?
A. It was available to the whole public. About 100 barbers were there, and about 3,000 haircuts were given.
Q. Are you happy where you’re at right now cutting hair?
A. Yeah, I really love it.
Q. Do you remember your first haircut?
A. Yes, it was so nerve-racking. It went well; it wasn’t until the fifth or sixth one that I messed up.
Q. How many times have you cut your own hair?
A. Only about three times - I stopped cutting my own hair, and now I let someone else do it for me.
Q. What do you want to do in the future?
A. I’m working on a mobile service, like a food truck but for haircuts. I want to do more school visits and visits to senior homes. And I want to eventually do contract work for large companies so that their employees don’t have to leave work, but instead I can come to them.
If you’d like to contact Clay, support his work, or get to know him a little better, you can contact him by phone at (405)493-4935 or by email at mistacutnup@gmail.com. His shop is located at 2800 NW 63rd Street. And you can also check out his Instagram: Endless_Fades.