A Bristol teenage barber is fast becoming a TikTok and Instagram phenomenon - by pitching up outside schools and offering free haircuts.
Shaq’ille Fearon is only 16 and still at school himself, but is about to rack up half a million likes on TikTok for his videos showing what happens when he sets up his barber’s chair outside school gates and gets the clippers out.
Huge crowds of young people gather - so much so that the police were called on one occasion, because people feared something bad was happening - and at another school, a teacher even volunteered to sit down in the chair and get a sharp trim.
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With the social media name @barbershaq, the young barber is fast becoming a social media phenomenon in Bristol, and has already been signed up as a future star with a management deal.
By day he’s in Year 11 studying for his GCSEs, but after school and on Saturdays, the 16-year-old works shifts at the famous St Pauls barbershop Supertonic in Ashley Road.
On his afternoons and evenings off, he’s been visiting a number of schools in Bristol, causing scenes as the young pupils clamour to watch his skills with the clippers.
“I started doing this because I don’t think anyone has done something like this before,” Shaq’ille told Bristol Live. “I’ve seen a few barbers doing videos for Instagram and TikTok where they will cut the hair of homeless people, and while that is great, I haven’t seen anyone going to a school at the end of the day, and cutting hair there. It fits in with what I’m trying to do - I’m only 16 and the people who I’m trying to reach are all my age too.”
So far, Shaq’ille has arrived outside Fairfield School, Downend School and Bristol Met, and his TikTok videos in a ‘Pulling Up To UK Schools’ is getting tens of thousands of views each time.
“I put out a message in the morning saying I’m coming, and word spreads pretty quickly through the school, so when I get there at the end of the day, there’s loads of kids waiting. I cut hair for free, it’s a community thing, it’s just about spreading the message of what I’m about,” he explained.
At Downend, the police were called thinking there was a public order incident, but were relieved to discover it was just Shaq’ille with a set of clippers and a chair - but the interaction with the police provided something a bit different for his video content.
Shaq’ille has always wanted to be a barber, and started cutting hair at the age of just ten years old. “My first trim was my dad, and I went from there,” he said. Proud dad Jade Fearon is still Shaq’ille’s biggest fan, and said he’s in awe of his work ethic.
The very first time he tried something a little different with a guerrilla barber video, it was inside a McDonald's - but he was unsurprisingly and unceremoniously kicked out of the restaurant. So instead, he took to the streets, and to schools in and around Bristol.
It’s a very different prospect cutting hair in a barbers, where there may be half a dozen people sitting in a queue who aren’t particularly interested in what you’re doing to another customer, compared with cutting hair with a crowd of hundreds of teenagers watching.
“The first time I did it at a school, it was something else - I could definitely feel the pressure of having everyone surrounding me and watching, and filming,” said Shaq’ille.
“I was thinking, ‘oh wait, this is a bit nerve-wracking’, but I’ve got to stay focused and not get nervous, and actually it brings out the best in me to do a really good job. At Bristol Met, a teacher came along and wanted a trim, and that was bringing something else to the table in terms of pressure,” he laughed.
Shaq’ille is looking at going to barbering college when he leaves school, and hopes to develop his skills, and taking his already exploding social media presence nationally and internationally. “It’s a good thing it’s connecting with people,” he said.
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