Future hair stylist and BHSS senior Calder East has been giving haircuts to friends and family for almost two years.

While many students think of their career plans as far out in the future, East has already gotten a jump start on his dreams of opening his own hair salon by cutting hair both in and out of the classroom. 

“Everybody’s just trying to get rich at 60, save money at 60, I don’t want to live my life at 60,” East said. 

East is currently studying barbering and cosmetology at Tricoci University of Beauty Culture, where he practices both on mannequins and real customers who come to the school. In addition, East often gives haircuts to friends and family for extra practice outside of the classroom.

East described how barbering is challenging in ways many other fields are not. “You can clock in… and clock out, and really skip the whole day and not be accountable for it”, East explained. “You just have to stay committed; in this field, you push yourself more than someone else pushes you.”

After his time at Tricoci, East plans on finding a job at a local hair salon until he makes enough money to open his own business. East explained that he plans to find a “bigger city with a bigger clientele.” As of right now, however, East is only focused on growing his own skills as a barber, so he is not “an average cutter with an average business.” 

“I’m not the guy to have a hidden talent in hair stuff, so I have to work for it”, East said. “The hardest part is doing a lot of practice to make each hairstyle look good and being committed to doing that day in and day out.”

East is the first of his family to pursue being a hairstylist. He described how he found his inspiration as a sophomore when getting a haircut at Razor’s Edge. “I was just telling my barber about how I didn’t want to go to school, and he told me that I could do barbering in this program and I was actually pretty excited”, East said. “That’s what got me started”.