Today SquireTechnologies announced a partnership with industry titan, Jason “Jay Majors” Raposo as the company’s Community Director. Appointed on March 1, Jay, whose 15-year career has taken him to impressive heights within the Barber and Hair Industry, is one of Squire’s main educational liaisons, helping to improve the quality of the conversations around community engagement and education, as well as bridging the gap between tech and one of world’s oldest professions.
Jay is a Master Barber and Educator, and is also the Founder and host of the first and second largest barber events in the world; Connecticut Barber Expo and Las Vegas Barber Expo, respectively. Raposo has been the premiere driving force in organizing and promoting the Babyliss4Barbers Team for the Conair Corporation in the U.S. and Canada, and has leveraged his position in the barber community by building relationships with consistency and integrity.
“I see immense growth potential in Squire’s operations and the opportunity to recruit, train and innovate the barbers of the future,” said Raposo. “Our people are our greatest asset. From the shop owner to the employees and most importantly the clients.”
Jason’s first major Squire initiative is a Barber Educational curriculum that will be implemented in Summer 2020, and will focus on financial literacy, time management and how to use the tools that Squire offers to help barbers expand and grow their business.
“Jason brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Squire. His relationships and expertise are unparalleled within the barber industry,” said Squire Co- Founder, Dave Salvant.
Squire Technologies is the leading Barbershop Management and POS software that seeks to ensure a seamless and efficient process between barbers and their clients from start to finish. Squire provides all the tools in a one-stop-shop to assist in growing a Barber’s brand and business — from implementing report analytics and marketing, to providing onboarding and customer success.
OSMO Ambassadors HeffyWheeler, JesecaMcMahon, Adele Clarke, Becky Sutherland, Myles Lewis and Tom Baxter have joined together to create social media campaign group -the International Hair Alliance (IHA) to support fellow hairdressers and barbers during the COVID-19 lock down.
The salon owners, who are all social media experts in their own right, decided to develop the IHA following the negative comments being posted soon after the government ordered the closure of salons and barbershops, “we all noticed how the vibe of the hair and barbering community on social media was suddenly all very negative or attacking fellow experts about how they were all individually responding to the crisis. As a group we wanted to switch that over and only focus on the strengths and positivity of the hair industry so we decided to launch the Facebook Private Group and get a positive social media campaign started,” explains Myles Lewis.
In less that two weeks, the Facebook group has grown to almost 500 followers from across the country, hundreds of hashtags on Instagram and thousands of TikTok interactions. The team are proactively communicating within the group and launched two social media campaigns: #backyourbarberand #supportyourstylist, focusing on encouraging the general public to avoid at-home hairdressing and barbering.
The team are producing TikTok videos and inviting fellow hair experts to produce their own videos in a nominations chain across Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, “the consumer media is giving advice about how you can colouryour hair at home or you’re seeing guys just grabbing the clippers and shaving their hair right off –we want our customers to know that it’s okay to leave your hair and just wait for us all to get back behind the chair. There are also alternatives to helping clients with colour fade and re-growth that don’t involve reaching for the box dyes.I’ve been creatingcolour care packagesfor use at home where I mix their usual vibrant colours with conditioner and post to them,you can suggest they use a colour enhance shampoo and conditioner too, or opt for a root touch up product. Our viral videos and challenges are a way of getting the message out to public and fellow hair experts, so that the campaign gathers momentum. Let’s all get involved and get these hashtags trending,” says HeffyWheeler.
The IHA is a group that not only focuses on the current COVID-19 campaigns but wants to be a safe space for hair experts to discuss key issues from mental health, business support, and sharing educational advice but always in a positive and supportive voice.
“This is a great initiative from our ambassadors and we’re fully behind supporting the campaigns across our social platforms and hope that everyone within the professional hair industry will use the hashtags to support the industry as a whole –we all need to be in this together and support our fellow hair experts and stay positive,” concludes Sinead McLaughlin, OSMO Brand Manager.
It’s constantly being said that anyone can apply to become a British Master Barber by simply paying a few pounds! Whether this is said by people that don’t meet the criteria to justify themselves or are jealous of the profiles other barbers are building for themselves we don’t know.
But what we do know is:
IN THE UK BARBERING INDUSTRY ANYBODY CAN CALL THEMSELVES ANYTHING THEY WANT WITHOUT HOLDING ANY QUALIFICATIONS. It goes so much further than that, when you think about these same people opening training facility’s offering education and more without ever officially learning themselves? Some of these maybe very competent and skilled in what they do, but why not get the papers and prove it. Many barbers are calling out for regulations of our industry but with current issues including Brexit and Covid-19 this isn’t something we can see happening soon. The government see our industry as low risk and believe that customers will ultimately decide using their feet. If a barber isn’t very good the clientele will not stay around for long. The British Master Barbers have been constantly at the forefront of barbering health and safety and believe this is the most important factor to protect ourselves and our clients. We created the first FREE to all barbering health and safety online course with a free downloadable certificate to help make our industry standards a little higher and show customers we take their wellbeing seriously. Along side this we have created three accreditation levels that can prove to customers that certain levels of official qualifications and time held within the industry have previously been achieved.Customers never ask to see a barbers qualifications or proof of skill and this is why we have created the British Master Barbers Accreditation.
PROFESSIONAL ACCREDITATIONWe have 3 levels of accreditation available. Professional Barber – Open to all members that either hold a full barbering qualification, or can prove a minimum of two years working experience in a Barbershop.
British Master Barber – Open to all members that are fully qualified, Insured & have a minimum of five years barbering experience.Proof of NVQ / SVQ or other recognised barbering certificate will be required. We will be incorporating Direct Observation Assessments ( distance assessments ) asking you to upload a video or send a Youtube link of yourself working directly on a client to our highly qualified and well regarded assessors who can judge your physical expertise & skills to achieve all your specific status tasks.
Grand Master Barber –Applicable only to barbering Academy owners, Teachers, Lecturers & Assessors of Barbering. These members must be fully qualified and provide suitable evidence of teaching barbering & have a minimum of ten years barbering experience.Proof of Barbering / Teaching / Lecturing & Academy Qualifications will be required. We will be incorporating Direct Observation Assessments ( distance assessments ) asking you to upload a video or send a Youtube link of yourself working / teaching directly on a client to our highly qualified assessors who can judge your physical expertise & skills to achieve all your specific status tasks. Each level requires a set criteria of tasks to be completed before successful application.
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!
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.
Being furloughed means employees are kept on the payroll, even though they aren’t working for your salon or barbershop. The minimum time employees can be furloughed for is 3 weeks.
Why does furloughing help my business?
If you furlough your employees the government will pay you 80% of their usual monthly wages before tax as of 28 February, up to a maximum of £2,500 per person per month. The government will also pay for employer’s National Insurance Contributions and the minimum employer’s pension contributions.
How do I apply?
Through HMRC, although their online portal may not be open until the end of April 2020.
Who can be furloughed?
Employees, whether they work full-time or part-time or if their hours vary. They must have been on your payroll on or before 28 February 2020.
How do I furlough my employees?
If you’re an NHBF Member, you have access to ready-to-use legal letters for your employees. These explain what furlough means and what happens next. If you’re not an NHBF Member, you need to take legal advice about furloughing.
What can employees do while on furlough?
While they are on furlough, employees can’t earn money for your business and they can’t provide services to your business. If they do either of these, you will have to pay them for the time they are working for you.
What about holidays?
Employees can’t be on holiday while they are furloughed.
You must cancel any holidays employees have booked during furlough. They can take those days back another time once your salon/barbershop has re-opened.
What about Easter bank holidays?
There are two bank holidays coming up over Easter. If your employees normally take bank holidays out of their holiday allowance, you must cancel these two days and put the days back into their annual leave pot. If your employees would normally have been working on a bank holiday, these two days will remain in their holiday allowance.
Do holidays build up while employees are furloughed?
Yes. When they return to work, they will be entitled to the holiday they built up while they were furloughed.
What if everyone wants to take holidays at the same time?
The government has said that up to 4 weeks of holidays from this year can be spread over the next two years.
This is only a short summary. For more details about the information given above and the coronavirus job retention scheme see the NHBF coronavirus hub: www.nhbf.co.uk/coronavirus
Follow the National Hair & Beauty Federation on social @nhbfsocial.
While this remains a difficult time for us all, we truly hope that Issue 13 of BarberEVO North American brings you some inspiration and a little bit of light in the dark.
In these uncertain times, when barbershops across North America have been forced to close, it is important that we continue to inspire each other, knowing that this will come to an end.
To provide some hope, we spoke to Anna Elliott, owner of Doc’s Barbershop in Shanghai, China, who has finally been able to reopen her shop doors and is getting back to business. We also asked our columnist and social media guru Tyrik Jackson to share his top tips on how to make the best of a bad situation and use your down time to grow and develop.
Inside this issue, we’re taking a closer look at barbershop interiors, exploring the unique style and décor of some of North America’s most awe-inspiring aesthetics, from the vintage style of Ludlow Blunt to the modern minimalism of Juice Toronto.
Now, we know most barbershops these days offer a nip of whiskey or a cold beer with their service, but what about a full-blown café or even a Caribbean street food restaurant? Yes, they exist and we’re finding out what makes the worlds of food and fading collide.
Elsewhere, we’re talking to our columnists about the world of cosmetology and how the line between it and barbering is becoming more and more blurred – a development that most would agree can only be a positive thing.
If that wasn’t enough, we have a whole host of exclusive interviews with the likes of WAHL Barber Battle winner Andy Rosario, the original barber doll herself Brandi Lashay, Andis Global Educator Lici Lady Barber, the team behind Rum Barber in Scotland, and of course, our cover star, SCurl Brand Ambassador and all-around star, Sipp the Surgeon.
We hope, above all, that you stay safe, stay healthy, and we will see you all soon.
When Schedulicity first launched their small business grant program, #SchedulicityCares, it was in recognition of how important every dollar is when you are working for yourself.
Byrd Mena and Lisa Finucane have successfully executed the first dates of DISRUPTOUR, powered by Wahl Professional, in San Diego California and Las Vegas, Nevada, kicking off a year-long US tour of high end barbering, hairdressing, social media and photography techniques.
The tour encompasses the best in barber and hairdressing education and is hosted by internationally recognized Byrd Mena. The troupe of highly regarded barbers are embarking on a 17 city tour in 2020 to bring an intimate ‘rock show’ of hair to those hungry for the latest in all things barbering.
“The goal is to bring solid education, relevant techniques, and an unprecedented elevation of the barbering educational experience,” says Lisa Finucane, National Director of Education with Wahl Professional. The DISRUPTOUR will be a global merry go round of the best talent in the industry – no two events are the same!
General admission tickets are $150, while the VIP DISTRUPTOUR Experience ticket is $250, which includes a souvenir lanyard, preferred seating and a LIMITED EDITION DISRUPTOUR MAGIC CLIP.
To find out about upcoming dates, get tickets and see artist line ups, visit www.disruptour.com.
