Teen entrepreneur becomes go-to barber after learning from YouTube

SWNS

A 14-year-old entrepreneur has become the go-to barber for local teens after teaching himself to cut hair through YouTube videos.  Ellis Craggs, from Watford, Hertfordshire, started 10 months ago by practicing on a friend during a rugby tour.  Word spread, and he now books weekend appointments in a shed at his family home, charging £5-£10 per haircut.  Ellis has earned a few hundred pounds, reinvesting in better equipment and saving to repay his parents for their support.  While barbering remains a side hustle, he also runs a paper round and has dabbled in reselling clothes online.

Transcript

00:00I'm Ellis, I've been cutting hair for about 10 months, 14 year old barber, started cutting

00:09hair when I was 13 and I got into it not really because of anything I just wanted to have

00:16a life skill and cut my friends hair free and stuff but my grandma is a hairdresser

00:21as well but she's stopped now so she gave me a couple tips but mainly off like TikToks

00:27and YouTube videos and the barber I used to go to he used to teach me some stuff, he

00:33used to tell me how to do it and yeah just cutting all my friends for free and I charge

00:39£8 for a haircut, £8 to £10 but all my friends they get free haircuts because they're

00:46like my guinea pigs. My mum and dad they think that I'm their little entrepreneur sort of

00:52because I do the newspaper round in the morning as well and I sell stuff on Vinted so I make

00:59quite a lot of money I'd say but they're very proud of me and I'm going to start cutting

01:04my dad's hair if he lets me. My friends at school are really proud of me, they're happy

01:09with my haircuts, they love my haircuts obviously some of them get free haircuts as well. The

01:14hardest thing about cutting hair is like getting to know new people because like I'm a bit

01:20nervous sometimes when I have like someone new come in who I don't really know of who's

01:25like a friend of a friend but I get to know them quick because I quite like talking sometimes.

01:31The other day a mum came in with her son and I was quite scared because the mum was like

01:36watching over everything but the haircut turned out good and I'm getting much better with

01:41my talking and I see myself maybe going somewhere cutting like famous footballers hair when

01:47I'm older and stuff but right now it's just like a little side hustle I'm doing on the

01:51side but it's getting more and more progressively better so it might go somewhere it might not

01:57but we'll see where it goes. I want to pay my parents back as well because they've obviously

02:02bought me loads of these equipment so hopefully I get to pay them back. We're really proud

02:07of what Ellis is doing with his barbering he's always been a bit of an entrepreneur

02:12and he's taken this on he's worked really hard at it and sort of learnt from TikTok etc.

02:20The time will be coming soon when Ellis is going to cut my hair I'm deciding what sort

02:25of haircut to go for though what one will I have Ellis? Bald. Bald. I don't think that

02:31will happen that won't be in the too distant future anyway but yeah so certainly that will

02:39be happening soon. We've been discussing the stars at the moment and apparently mullets are in.

02:44Mullets might be in but it's certainly not a cut I'm gonna go for I think I did have a mullet

02:50actually about 25 years ago it's sort of mullet but yeah I'm not gonna go for a mullet maybe one

02:56of these skin fades what do you reckon will that suit me? Maybe. Skin fade no. Do you reckon he'd be a good customer? I reckon he would he'd sit in the chair.

03:07Do I have to pay or is it a freebie? Nah just a freebie. Yeah are you sure? I mean you have bought me with this equipment.

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