He gained attention for singing, now man cuts hair

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. (AP) — The stairs lead to a room lit by a red, white and blue pole, as well as a few fluorescent bulbs that hang over a barber chair. The scissors, brushes, straight razor and clippers rest neatly atop a mat that covers a faded wood table.

Above them is a mirror with pictures of family and friends taped to the sides. The surrounding walls are covered in Chicago Cubs memorabilia and old barber signs. In the shadowy corners, guitars and a drum set wait for a late night practice.

If a man's basement could tell his story, this basement says everything about Lupe Carroll. The 31-year-old Bourbonnais resident gained national attention when he competed in Season 5 of "The Voice" in 2013. But the tattooed man who gained prominence for his acoustic cover of "If I Were a Carpenter" now is cutting his way into another career.

Carroll recently earned his barber's license and intends to cut hair while propelling his music career.

"Being a barber was on the back burners of my mind," Carroll admitted. "I started cutting hair about 15 years ago. I reached that age where I no longer wanted my mother cutting my hair, and I got too conscious about it. A unisex salon I went to simply wasn't cutting it, so I tried cutting my own hair."

That first haircut, as Carroll recalls, was a "hack job." As a teenager, he didn't understand blending or fading. He used a set of paper scissors and a beard trimmer. His mother, Rosa, also remembered him cutting his bangs uneven.

"He never liked me cutting his hair because I didn't know how to do it," Rosa Carroll recalled with a laugh. "I just did the best I could. I didn't know how to use the clippers very well. I pulled his hair with them.

"He was always more bullheaded, more so than his two brothers. So, he tried it himself. I could have stopped him, but it saved me the trouble of giving him a bad haircut. If he messed up, he could only blame himself."

After a few more self-cuts at his parents' trifold mirror, Carroll started getting the hang of cutting his hair. His friends complimented his haircuts and asked who his barber was.

"For three years, I cut my own hair," Carroll said. "I looked forward to it, knowing I would spend an hour one evening hacking away at my head. When my friends asked me to cut theirs, I told them, 'It's probably 100 times easier than cutting my own. So, yeah, let's give it a shot.'"

Throughout time, Carroll replaced his paper scissors with hair shears and his beard trimmer with actual clippers to give haircuts on the side.

Carroll was a flower delivery man for Busse & Rieck when he made it on "The Voice." While that job gave him a big break in music, it also channeled him into becoming a barber.

He had been looking for a new barber when he delivered flowers to Paul's Parlor one day. He arranged an appointment with the owner, Paul Surprenant, who had been a barber for 48 years before retiring a couple years ago.

Carroll loved Surprenant's work and kept going back to him until his retirement. During those haircuts, Surprenant saw a barber in the making and nudged Carroll toward the profession a couple of times before Carroll shared his passion for cutting hair.

"Lupe really had a lot of questions about haircutting and the different styles," Surprenant recalled. "He talked about the styles his grandpa wore. He really seemed interested. He was outgoing and friendly. He could talk to anybody. He was good with young people and old people. I told him, 'You are a creative guy with your music. Why don't you check into being a barber?'"

From there, Surprenant gave Carroll a list of barber schools to research. Carroll chose to go to The Barber Academy of Schaumberg, where he trained for a year and a half before getting his license on Monday.

"I need to make an appointment with him now," Surprenant said. "He's going to do a very fine job."

Carroll taped a picture of him sitting in Surprenant's chair on one of the barber poles in his basement. He also has Surprenant's old business card taped to his mirror.

"Without Paul, I don't know if I would be doing this right now," he said.

If all the Cubs memorabilia, baseball cards and old barber signs didn't give it away, Carroll is a vintage collector, a nostalgic lover of past times in a digital era.

As a barber, he wants to bring the 1930s, '40s and '50s back to life with a vintage haircutting style that carries a modern twist, fading. He gives his friends the hot towel treatment and uses a straight razor to trim their beards.

"I am very into that old-school look," Carroll said. "I feel there is a reason we go back to every decade. It's because it looked good, sounded good. The way people spoke and acted between the '30s and '50s — those old-fashion mannerisms — I just want to bring those back."

For now, he is doing that with his friends. Some will call him just before a first date, and others want a fresh cut for a job interview.