Resiliency needed to cut it in business, local barber says
Cristian Camarillo, owner of Spa City Barbershop, learned to cut his own hair by watching YouTube as a teenager.
“Back then, the barbers weren’t as elite as they are now; it’s so much more finesse, but whenever I was learning then it was the basics, so that’s all I needed,” Camarillo said. “It was the fundamentals to get going, and then over time you add your own finesse, so it was mainly off YouTube.”
Since he was a child, Camarillo said he watched how barbers were cutting his friends’ heads and did not agree with how it was being done.
“I was like ‘Nah that haircut is not right, like no they did not do it right’ and then I started going to this old man’s barbershop and I was like, ‘I can do this,’ so I started cutting my own hair when I was like 15, 16 years old,” he said.
“So like usually on Google, we’re one of the top-rated ones, so people from out of town, tourists, come by; jockeys come by when they’re in town. We’re one of the first ones, so a lot of times it was like, ‘Oh let I want to get something to take with me back home,’ and usually, I have a shirt for them or a hat or whatever I can get for them,” Camarillo said.
The original site of Spa City Barbershop is right next door to the current location at 702 Higdon Ferry Road. Camarillo started in 2013 and moved to the new location two years ago. Camarillo sells other items in his shop, such as hats and shirts.
“We started in that small little building and ended up having enough barbers to move to the bigger location,” he said, noting he feels you need to be “resilient” to run a successful business.
“There’s always going to be a setback, and one has to be prepared for the setback no matter what it is. Being able to think logically and not with your emotions is another thing. There’s people that grow too fast, thinking, ‘Man, I’m going to do this and that,’” Camarillo said.
“I think you also have to take
care of the people that take care of you. They’re the ones that are helping you; they’re the ones that help things run smoothly, like your teammates and the other guys in the shop. I could not do it without them,” he said. “You have one that’s helping direct where it’s going, and then the other guys keep the momentum pushing, and it’s up to the leader to continue everybody on the right path.”
Camarillo said there were some obstacles the shop had to overcome, noting the business used to do walk-ins on Saturdays and he had to learn how to improve his communication skills.
“We get so busy. We’d open at 8 (a.m.), and people get so crammed in trying to be the first one,” he said.
“My communication skills weren’t as great, so my way to communicate wasn’t the right way,” Camarillo said. “I had to develop my communication skills and being able to neutralize all situations that could have occurred that could be solved through communication talking, but over time we’ve switched to appointments only just because it runs a lot smoother, and with the current events, it’s very hard to have as many people around.”
He said the most rewarding part is the regulars that consistently come to the barbershop.
“You develop a trust over time, people get close and watching my team grow, I think that’s pretty cool. You’re always learning this trade, no matter if you’re 20 years in the game, 10 years in the game or five years in the game. There’s always something to learn from your fellow barbers, as in what to do, what not to do, how to do things better. I think overall experiences just watching everybody grow,” Camarillo said.
Spa City Barbershop can “cater to anything and any kind of haircut that walks in,” and the general goal is to “give everybody a good experience,” he said.