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EVO Rewind: Wahl 100 Years

Leo Wahl didn’t revolutionise an industry, he created one…

HAIRSTYLES COME AND GO. FROM CREW CUTS TO POMPADOURS, AFROS TO FADES TO TODAY’S CUSTOM DESIGNS, STYLES HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS. REGARDLESS OF WHAT’S IN FASHION, WAHL HAS REMAINED AT THE CENTER OF TEN DECADES OF DIFFERENT CUTS. FOR THE PAST 100 YEARS, WAHL CLIPPER CORPORATION HAS PIONEERED AND REFINED THE ELECTRIC CLIPPERS THAT MAKE CUTTING THE HAIRSTYLES OF THE LAST CENTURY POSSIBLE

Back in 1919 when the world was still recovering from World War I, many inventors were taking the opportunity to put their best ideas on the market. On October 14, 1919, Leo Wahl of Sterling, Illinois applied for patents on his newly developed electromagnetic hair clipper. He had been experimenting with engineering electromagnetic motors since he was in high school, first selling a medical massager that he invented for barbershops. It was during his time that Leo recognized the need to improve barber tools. Learning from the barbers, Leo concentrated on building efficient and high-quality hair clippers. Within a year of securing the patent, Leo’s factory had manufactured and sold thousands of clippers to professionals all over the United States. 

In the early 1940s, the Wahl Clipper Corporation installed its own plastic moulding presses. This, along with other various manufacturing technologies, allowed the company to control almost every aspect of production under the roof of the Wahl plant in Sterling, Illinois, a quiet rural community 90 miles west of Chicago. Control over the production allowed Wahl to constantly improve upon his designs and perfect all of his products. It also allowed the Wahl product line to expand to include hair dryers, shear sharpeners, shears, curling brushes, combs and attachments for hair clippers. 

During World War II, Wahl Clipper Corporation was called upon to provide clippers and shears to help keep soldiers’ hair out of their eyes while on the battlefields of Europe. While over there, American GIs introduced their European allies to Wahl clippers. This word-of-mouth goodwill created enough brand interest that Leo Wahl was able to establish a distribution centre in Holland in 1949.

From the American heartland of Sterling, Illinois to the transatlantic market, Wahl clippers became recognised worldwide. With such high demand, the company began exporting products in the voltages and frequencies required for international use. 

With the war behind them, Americans in the 1950s were being influenced by another huge event. Thanks to access to television, pop culture infiltrated people’s homes and rock stars and actors became household names. Everybody wanted to emulate what they saw as being the latest popular haircut. It was no longer about efficiency; haircuts were now about being cool. Wahl quickly introduced new products to the market to help barbers across the country recreate these styles for their customers. 

In 1957, Leo Wahl passed away with over 100 patents to his name. Motivated to keep the Wahl Clipper Corporation a family business, Leo passed the company on to his three sons. Warren became president, Robert became vice president and Jack became managing engineer. This ensured that the same values instilled by Leo would continue through his sons. That same year, the Wahl Clipper Corporation moved into a new, larger location in Sterling. 

Warren, Robert and Jack followed in their father’s footsteps by continuing to innovate. In the 1960s, the company produced a number of new products, including the very unique and innovative flexible-blade electric razor. In 1965, Wahl pioneered another advancement in the industry with the vacuum clipper. A man was now able to get a haircut without any hair touching his suit. The next year saw the creation of the first universal-type rotary motor clipper. Incredibly, again in 1967, Wahl created another first for the industry – its cordless/rechargeable battery-operated hair trimmer changed the barbering world forever. 

In 1980, Jim Wahl, a third-generation Wahl, began the first official Professional-product division within the company. He worked tirelessly to educate the cosmetology and barbering community about the merits of their US-made clippers and trimmers. In 1983, he started the renowned Wahl Education and Artistic Team (W.E.A.T.), focusing on the classroom and the importance of using the right tools and techniques. 

In 2002, Wahl launched a barber-oriented line of 5-Star products. This line really began to take off and continues to be popular among barbers because of their impressive performance and uniqueness. 

Today, Wahl has a wide variety of blades, accessories, clippers and trimmers to help barbers create the styles and cutting techniques their customers want. And yet even today, the Wahl Clipper Corporation team continues Leo Wahl’s practice of listening to barbers, using their opinions and needs to help shape the next line of products.

In celebration of 100 years of business, Wahl has combined a century of engineering advances into its newest product – the 100 Year Clipper. What they consider to be their finest professional clipper to date, it is the physical embodiment of 100 years of Wahl innovation and tradition. It has the classic style of the original Wahl designs but with powerful cordless technology and a li-ion battery. 

Amazingly, Wahl Clipper Corporation started with one man’s vision, a single patent and a small manufacturing plant. Today, 100 years later, it’s grown to eight factories on four continents, 22 sales offices around the world serving over 165 countries and over 274 patents related to the barbering, salon and pet grooming industries. 

However, after 100 years in business, the core of what makes Wahl what it is has not changed. The company remains family owned and managed, its headquarters are still in Sterling, Illinois and it has continued to stay true to its values of innovation, quality and efficiency. These values have helped Wahl become a leader in this industry and will allow them to continue providing quality products for years to come.

NHBF working with UK Government to deliver ‘return to work’ guidelines

The National Hair & Beauty Federation is working with the Government to deliver guidelines for how the hair, beauty and barbering industries can safely return to work. These will be released in line with the Government ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown which is expected to be announced this week. However, the Government is not yet prepared to discuss the times when different industries will be allowed to re-open.

The NHBF is part of a number of working groups made up of trade bodies from a range of different industries. The NHBF has informed the government of industry-wide concerns based on recent survey findings. 

This NHBF survey attracted almost 2000 responses from hair and beauty salons and barbershops. When asked what their biggest worry was about re-opening, 84% of respondents said they were concerned about how to maintain social distancing when working in close physical contact with clients.  

Nearly three quarters (74%) were worried about what kind of personal protective equipment (PPE) would be needed, its cost and availability. Almost two thirds (64%) did not want to see business disrupted again by a second wave of coronavirus infections or a second lockdown period.

Hilary Hall, NHBF chief executive, said: “We have taken our survey findings to government at the highest levels, including a round table meeting with Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, about the need for sector-specific guidance that everyone can rely on. These discussions are about how we can return to work safely, not when.  A key concern for Members is PPE, but until the government has issued advice on this important topic, we still cannot answer questions from Members about exactly what will be required.”

For more information and FAQs, please visit www.nhbf.co.uk/coronavirus and follow the National Hair & Beauty Federation on social at @nhbfsocial.

EVO Rewind: Whitney VerMeer

KNOWN FOR HER EDGY, EDITORIAL CREATIONS, WHITNEY VERMEER HAS BECOME A HIGHLY RECOGNISED BARBER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND ANDIS PLATFORM ARTIST. BARBEREVO TALKED TO WHITNEY RECENTLY TO FIND OUT WHERE IT ALL STARTED AND WHAT SHE HOPES TO ACHIEVE IN THE FUTURE

“I’ve been doing hair for 10 years now,” says Whitney, who started out in cosmetology, covering everything from hair coloring to spa services. After two years of cosmetology, Whitney made the move to Minneapolis and began working under a barber who trained her in traditional barber methods.

Despite never going to barber college, Whitney took an unique approach to her own education. “I didn’t get to finish my training, so what I started doing was taking pictures of my work and then critiquing it, training myself to get better at cutting,” she explains.

What started as a self-teaching method quickly developed into a passion, and photography is something that now plays a huge role in Whitney’s life. Known for her unique portfolio of photography, she says she would do a shoot a week if she could! 

She certainly has her own style and anyone that follows her on Instagram or has seen her body of work, knows she loves to work in black and white. “I love those kinds of images. I’m always attracted to artwork in black and white too so it just felt right. When people want me to do a color shoot, I always think to myself ‘yeah that looks cool but it would look so much cooler in black and white’.”

At her studio in Minneapolis, Whitney splits her time between cutting clients and styling and shooting her editorial work. “My ultimate goal is to be focusing solely on visuals and spending less time behind the chair with clients,” says Whitney. For now, though, she still has a pretty long list of loyal clients. “I’ve been working with most of my clients for about three years now, but I only work behind the chair three days a week and I’ve gone down from around 300 clients to about 40-60.”

How then, did she go from a career in cosmetology to a client list of 300? “I guess what’s really funny is I still don’t really feel like a big success. I always put out what I want to put out when it comes to my work, I like to push boundaries. I always say my goal is not to be the best at something, it’s to change perceptions and that’s what’s most important to me.”

What certainly put Whitney on the map was her win at the North American Hairstyling Awards in 2017, where she was crowned Men’s Hairstylist of the Year. “Winning that award got me a lot of exposure, but I’m not going to enter that category again. My goal is to win Hairstylist of the year. Ideally, I’d like to try to win every category!” 

Whitney specializes in cutting short hair, whether that’s on men, women or non-binary individuals. “When I first started cutting men’s hair, a lot of people asked me if I was just doing it because it was easy, but it’s not and I really wanted to show them that it was an artform. I feel a responsibility to help push the industry further that way.”

In her quest to push the industry into the spotlight, Whitney has involved herself more and more in education over the years, and last October she became a platform artist for leading clipper brand, Andis.

“I’ve always only used Andis, it’s always been my go-to. I am longtime lover of their products and when I started meeting people from the company, I saw how passionate they were about family and I just fell in love with the brand.”

“I’ve been using them ever since I got out of cosmetology school. My favorite one is the Super ZR, but anything from their cordless range really. When I first started cutting with cordless, it changed the way that I cut hair because I just wasn’t restricted anymore.”

As well as her role as a Platform Artist, her proficiency in styling and shooting editorial has opened up even more opportunities with the clipper brand, creating editorial work for both herself and Andis. “It’s more or less coming up with unique haircuts using the Andis range, while also creating some more dynamic shots of the products themselves,” explains Whitney.

The project will allow her to organize shoots with other artists, as well as putting together two photo- and video-based shoots a year for Andis, creating the concept and assigning different roles to other members of the Andis team. “It’s really awesome, I’m so excited about it!”

It’s safe to say Whitney likes herself busy, as on top of her editorial and educational work with Andis and her 40+ client list, she is currently developing her own product line, from hair care to even clothing and lifestyle, giving part of any proceeds to a yet to be decided anti-bullying foundation.

Outside of her professional goals, Whitney is also really passionate about supporting women in the barbering industry. “One of the things I’m really passionate about is taking gender away from everything, it’s not a men’s haircut, it’s a short haircut. I’m working on some new initiatives with Andis to support women in barbering culture and I’m really excited about that.”

EVO Rewind: Elliott Chester interview

HAVING BEEN IN THE INDUSTRY FOR OVER 20 YEARS, IT’S SAFE TO SAY LAS VEGAS-BASED ELLIOTT CHESTER HAS A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE UNDER HIS BELT. BARBERING IS SO INGRAINED IN ELLIOTT’S WAY OF LIFE, HE BARELY REMEMBERS A TIME WHEN HE DIDN’T HAVE A PAIR OF CLIPPERS.

“I’ve always been a barber; my step-mom’s sister was married to this cat that cut his own hair, so there were always clippers in the house, so I just started cutting my own hair, my friends, people on the football team.” 

As time went by, Elliott started taking regular trips to the barber with his dad, and in his sophomore year he was expelled from school for having his nickname shaved onto his head, despite the fact that a fellow student did the same thing and instead of being kicked out, his was considered ‘team spirit’. This led to a discrimination lawsuit against the school board, which became such a big deal in Arizona – where he was based at the time – that it was turned into an editorial cartoon in a paper.

The impact of the case drove him to become the barber he is today. “Not only through my hairstyle was I speaking up for my right to be different, but also my right to express myself, and it taught me that how you show yourself to the world is such a powerful thing.” After finishing school and spending some time in the local music scene, he needed a new direction and the one constant for him was his love of cutting hair. “I went to barber college in Bakersfield, California, and that was it, I just dumped all of my energy into it and it was something I became so passionate about.”

Bakersfield became his stomping ground for the first eight years of his career after graduation, working in salons where barbers worked alongside hairstylists in a shared space. Feeling limited by the small, conservative style of the town, Elliott started driving to and working weekends in Las Vegas where a friend of his owned a barbershop. “In Bakersfield I was charging $12 a cut, but in Vegas we were charging $20, so almost double, plus sometimes you’d get a $20 tip, so the move was a no-brainer.”

After working in his friend’s salon for just over a year, he read a salon magazine article about a barbershop in Caesar’s Palace (Truefitt & Hill), on the Las Vegas strip. “I had never seen anything like it, the barber chairs were beautiful, the barbers were all dressed in suits, they just looked dope…to me it was what barbering was supposed to be.”

Elliott, wearing shorts and a t-shirt at the time, immediately went out and got himself a suit just so he could feel adequately dressed to go into the shop and introduced himself as a barber and luckily, they were hiring. The master barber met him and offered him the opportunity to audition, which was, unsurprisingly, quickly followed up by a job offer, which turned into a year of incredible experiences.

From there, he was recruited by another barbershop on the strip, ‘The Art of Shaving,’ where he stayed for two years. “I really used that period as a time to learn and discover the style of barbering that I do, which is really catering to a higher-end clientele. It was like going back to school again and it made me realize what I wanted to do, which is when I stretched out and opened up Elliott and Company in December 2007.”

 The shop, located just 15 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, takes inspiration from the old-school, traditional barbershops of the early 1900s. “I didn’t want it to be a throwback, I wanted to have those elements, but a modern representation of that.” Designed to be a welcoming space, rather than having all the chairs on one side of the room, the four chairs were across from each other to create open communication and group culture.

For Elliott, being a barber is about running a good business, to have a positive effect on the community and provide a great, relaxing experience. He has built up a diverse range of talented staff that reflects his wide client base so that everyone feels represented and welcome. “It’s not about me, or my shop, it’s about the customers, those guys are the stars, not me.”

“I made a conscious decision to put the retail section directly across from the seating areas so that when customers are waiting, they are looking directly at the retail products we offer, so they can maybe take home a piece of that barbershop experience with them,” Elliott explains, and this attitude to business has served him well as a Layrite ambassador.

“I had heard about Layrite before I met Donnie. I was introduced to the Layrite guys by Jay Majors at the International Beauty Show in Vegas and we hit it off real quick. I was looking for a good product line that I could really stand behind and I knew the history of Donnie and it meant a lot to me as a product line because a barber made it, it came from the barbering world. I wanted to support a product line that supports us as an industry, and the product works, Layrite Original Pomade is a staple.”

Establishing that relationship with Layrite meant a lot to Elliott because they understood what was going on in the barbering industry because they themselves were deeply entrenched in it. 

“I was always really flattered if they asked for my feedback on products like the Natural Matte Cream or Cement Clay, you know they cared about my opinion. I just kept begging them for a decent shampoo and conditioner, not some ‘guys are lazy’ 3-in-1 bullshit, a real quality product and they listened and came out with a great shampoo and conditioner. Honestly, every product in their line is dope and it works really well, I use it every single time.”

Elliott was lucky enough to be in on the ground floor when Layrite began building the Band of Barbers with people like Jake Shipwreck, Kenny Duncan and more. “It was much more than just being sponsored by Layrite, it was a bunch of folk who really believe in education and in helping to grow the industry, so when they extended the invitation I was beyond honored. It’s the greatest professional honor of my career.”

EVO Rewind: Miguel Rosas interview

Welcome to the first EVO Rewind!

We will be regularly uploading to the website some of our favourite BarberEVO interviews of the past several years… and who better to start us off?

Back in October 2018, we exclusively interviewed Wahl Education and Artistic Team member Miguel Rosas.

He opened his first barbershop in his teens, has won over 25 barber battle trophies, came first on Cedric’s Barber Battle TV show and now leads the way with his academy in Moline, Illinois.

You can read the full interview below and view the spread as it appeared in the printed magazine too!

You can follow Miguel on Instagram here.

CREATIVITY, RESOURCEFULNESS AND AN EYE FOR DETAIL ARE ONLY A FEW OF THE QUALITIES WHICH MADE MIGUEL ROSAS STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD AND BE NOTICED, NOW IN HIS THIRD YEAR AS A MEMBER OF THE WAHL EDUCATION AND ARTISTIC TEAM.

At just 19 years old, launching his own barbershop proved to be a steep learning curve for Miguel Rosas. However, the challenges and pitfalls of starting up a business so early on have only fuelled Miguel’s desire to learn, improve, and pursue his passion for the craft. Fast forward several years later, he is now part of the Wahl Education and Artistic Team, CEO of The New Style Barbershop and, as of February, a proud proprietor of his own barbering school, the New Style Hair Academy in Moline, Illinois. Miguel is without doubt a barber who perseveres through adversity and keeps on going.    

Getting into business with an older and perhaps more streetwise business partner proved to be costly and set Miguel back considerably at such a young age. Things didn’t work out smoothly for his first barbershop attempt, but this didn’t deter him. Miguel quickly realized that there were gaps in his knowledge that needed to be filled in order for him to run a business successfully, in addition to having those crucial barbering skills. He enrolled in classes to cover essential business skills such as accounting, taxes and balancing the books. Miguel explains: “My next step was to open up a barbershop somewhere else in the area… this time round I wanted to make sure if I did it, I was just a lot more professional about it, so that was the reason why I took the classes.”

Miguel has been an avid participant in Barber Battles, having won over 25 trophies to date.  Outgrowing the barbering challenges presented in his local area, he wanted to compete further afield in places such as Chicago, Texas and New York. He recalls, “I saw the Barber Battle and I thought, you know what? I want to do that. I want to go see how good I am compared to these guys in the bigger city.”  

Having placed third in his first competition, Miguel was both scared and hooked by the experience in equal measures, and he was ready to compete again. Backed by a supportive group which included his hair models, they would drive on the road for up to 16 hours to attend competitions. These barber battles judged the ability of barbers on a myriad of different categories such as fastest fade, best portrait, best design, and best old-school style. It was at these earlier competitions that Miguel first met prominent figures from Wahl Professional, such as the late Isadore Adams.  

Miguel notes the importance of strategy to his rising success in competitions. “I would choose people with really good hair, thick hair, hair with bleach to see the fade really nice – it’d stick out really well. It’s all about choosing the right canvas. You need to have a really good canvas, it’s really important when you’re doing a Barber Battle.”

Opportunities for television-wide publicity really took off for Miguel after his barbering skills were noticed by Lee Resnick from Barbershop Connect following a first-place competition win. Lee’s contacts in both the barbering and the television industry would boost Miguel into the limelight, having secured him a competing place on Cedric’s Barber Battle.

Miguel reflects: “Man, when I got that phone call I was super excited, getting a phone call from Beverly Hills from the producer, and he’s telling me all the details… I’m thinking, ‘I’ve made it’. It was definitely one of the most exciting journeys of my barbering career, knowing I was gonna be on T.V., the world was gonna see me, and I was gonna be able to put my barbering skills to the ultimate test.”

Following on from his television success, Miguel aspired to share the many skills and barbering techniques he had learnt along the way, and it seemed naturally fitting that he wanted to work for a five-star brand such as Wahl Professional as a hair design educator. Miguel really went the extra mile to get his name noticed within the company. He took the initiative by reaching out via social media to express his interest in the role, but it was one striking haircut that really made him stand out from the crowd – a portrait of then Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta.

“I went to the game in Chicago, I was in the very last seat, all the way up in the very top. I had my friend’s son with me that I did the design on. I said, ‘let’s try and get down on the field somehow.’ So we did, we just started pushing through everybody. Finally, they let him go onto the field and he ran up to Jake Arrieta. Some people think that was set up, like we were invited onto the field – it wasn’t like that.” Demonstrating his skill set was something that Miguel had always gone above and beyond to do, and it had finally paid off.

The haircut went viral across social media, and was re-shared by both Major League Baseball and The Cubs on Instagram, garnering thousands of likes and comments, in addition to interviews by Fox 32, ABC, and Univision. As a self-taught artist who favors the Wahl Professional Detailer as his trimmer of choice, this just goes to show how far skill, creativity, perseverance and the right tools can get someone.

Miguel recalls that he was contacted by a representative from Wahl Professional, who told him that he posted a lot of good work and had a positive attitude – they were ready to talk to him about joining the Wahl Professional team. “And that’s kinda how that happened. It kinda just went from there,” he says.

Included in his portfolio of hair art are figures ranging from LeBron James, Aaron Rodgers, Anthony Rizzo and Floyd Mayweather to Bernie Sanders; even Colonel Sanders from KFC, which impressed one district manager enough to gift Miguel a prestigious card to receive free KFC food for life.

Miguel’s hair portraits are influenced by the work of barbers such as Radames Perez and Rob the Original, who were big inspirations in terms of portrait detailing. “Once I’d seen that this was possible, I just said, ‘well, shoot’, you know? If they can do it, I can do it. So I just started practising and I started off doing basic stencilized pictures of people’s faces; once I got good at doing the stencilized version of their face I would then start blending and fading, and creating detail with my clippers so that it would make it more lifelike, rather than a stencil or a cartoon look.”

This affinity for hair design has held Miguel in good stead throughout his career to date, however, he emphasizes that he’s not a one-trick pony. Whilst Miguel is confident with every aspect of men’s hair, hair detailing is his creative outlet. He states: “Some of the stuff you see, I didn’t do it because I was getting paid. I did it for my own satisfaction and being able to use a different type of medium when it comes to art… it’s not your bread and butter as a barber.”

Miguel has leapt towards every barbering opportunity and when there wasn’t one, he created it for himself through education and social networking savvy. His drive and attention to detail make him an excellent member of the Wahl Education and Artistic Team, for which he is now busy educating the next generation of skilled barbers in the use of premium Wahl Professional tools.