Action Fig.

The bike barber.

As a teenager, he started trimming his classmates’ hair for fast-food money. Today, at age 26, he’s the Vélo Barber – he brings a full-service barber-shop experience to his clients in New York City, by bike. Howard’s on-demand service starts at $100 (R1350) for a cut, and he’s styled famous singers and actors. Here’s how this self-taught craftsman is using his bike to turn his dreams into reality.

ON MY SECOND birthday my dad put me on a bicycle, and I basically haven’t stopped riding since then. It was my freedom. I was always riding my bike until the sun went down.

When I was a kid, I had a BMX, then I had a mountain bike. As I got older I started road biking. Last year I got hit by a truck on my bike. That frame is still cracked, so I recently got into fixies. I’m slowly getting back to where I was.

It’s always been my passion. Riding in the city is the ultimate rush. You need an active mind, and you always have to focus three steps ahead.

I’VE BEEN MESSING around with hair since I was 15 or 16. I started cutting hair in high school in New York City. I had some friends who needed trims, and I had a straight razor. Then my parents sent me to boarding school in North Carolina. At the time, my mother was on active duty in the army; my parents were always working or deployed. She thought boarding school would be a better environment for me.

When I went to the boarding school, the food was bland, everything was disgusting. It was a culture shock. I thought,

I have to find food. At the time I was vegetarian. The veggie burgers at Burger King were, like, seven dollars (R95) – I’d run out of money quickly.

So I started using my brother’s clippers to cut hair. My Burger King money became my weekend money, then my weekend money became my expense account. I was seeing everything as a haircut.

I realised it was something that I actually enjoyed doing.