Mocktails Or Messy
David Peters: The journey to becoming Pittsburgh's Top Barber | EP16
Pittsburgh Dave, the city's renowned barber and sports enthusiast whose moniker echoes his fervor for Pittsburgh. He unravels his story from humble beginnings to becoming a social media sensation, injecting every conversation with his love for the Steel City and its dynamic sports scene. Listen to how a bourbon-infused tribute to his father shapes his drink choices, and get ready as we mix up a Kentucky whiskey mocktail right here on air. That’s what you’ll discover as Dave recounts how offering pro bono haircuts led to a locker room session with country music heavyweight, Luke Combs. His tales are not just about shears and styles, but about seizing the moment on Twitter, which can unexpectedly open doors to new friendships. Dave's experiences with everyone from NFL hopefuls to music legends reveal the serendipity of social connections and their impact beyond the business at hand.
Mocktails Or Messy podcast
IG: @mocktailsormessy | TikTok: @mockmess
Watch | YouTube Mocktails Or Messy
Listen | Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Featured | #11 of Best Local Podcasts: FeedSpot
Pittsburgh Dave, the city's renowned barber and sports enthusiast whose moniker echoes his fervor for Pittsburgh. He unravels his story from humble beginnings to becoming a social media sensation, injecting every conversation with his love for the Steel City and its dynamic sports scene. Listen to how a bourbon-infused tribute to his father shapes his drink choices, and get ready as we mix up a Kentucky whiskey mocktail right here on air. That’s what you’ll discover as Dave recounts how offering pro bono haircuts led to a locker room session with country music heavyweight, Luke Combs. His tales are not just about shears and styles, but about seizing the moment on Twitter, which can unexpectedly open doors to new friendships. Dave's experiences with everyone from NFL hopefuls to music legends reveal the serendipity of social connections and their impact beyond the business at hand.
Mocktails Or Messy podcast
IG: @mocktailsormessy | TikTok: @mockmess
Watch | YouTube Mocktails Or Messy
Listen | Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Featured | #11 of Best Local Podcasts: FeedSpot
You were listening to Mocktails or Messy with Kelly Musgorski and Ryan Frankofsky. Welcome to the studio, dave. Pittsburgh. Dave, give me a little rundown, tell me the story behind Pittsburgh, dave, like you really stand out from, like the rest of the Daves in the town.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so growing up I was a huge Pittsburgh sports fan. I've always just loved the city, everything that has to offer, how diverse it is, how much stuff there is to do, and everybody that's a barber. It's like cuts by this, cuts by that hair by this, and I was like man, fuck it, I'm going to be Pittsburgh, dave, I like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and me and Kelly spotted you. On the interweb social media yeah, and me and Kelly spotted you on the interweb, the social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we stumbled upon you. Your name was going around and started following you, and now you're here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm super excited to be here with you. I loved your guys' interview with Dan Berta. Actually, no, dan Bernis, we're neighbors. Yeah, I'm literally right down McKnight Road. He's off of Babcock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, wow, so you're in the neck of the woods. The North Hills is the best hills in Pittsburgh, right?
Speaker 3:Best place to get your hair done in Pittsburgh. Oh shit, it is it really is.
Speaker 2:You can't go anywhere else. So what is the studio called?
Speaker 3:Mine is Steel City Barber Lounge Okay.
Speaker 1:You can find Pittsburgh Dave on McKnight Steel City.
Speaker 3:Barber.
Speaker 1:Lounge. Steel City Barber Lounge. We got to keep it with the Pittsburgh theme. Yeah, you know mocktails are messy. You know the story behind it. I'm not drinking, kelly is. I'm the mocktail, she's the messy. What?
Speaker 3:are you going to be today? I'm the messy. Yeah, we're going to be messy together, Cheers.
Speaker 2:Dave Cheers, Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1:Dave Thank you for coming in and, dave, tell me about your drink of choice. It's a classic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my late father. He passed away when I was 10 years old. My dad was a Jack and Coke guy and all my friends growing up through high school Well, not high school, sorry, mom Gross Through my 20s, it was just a drink of choice that me and my friends always stuck with. Beer was never my thing, yeah. So I uh tried this and it's been my go-to.
Speaker 2:My other go-to is a vodka red bull, that's it I have to say, if you're still sticking with this, you must have never gotten really sick drinking it never, because mine used to be cranodka and I will never touch it again because I got sick.
Speaker 1:You know what I do got to say I love me some Jackie D. So to compliment your Jack Daniels I brought in. It might not be Tennessee whiskey, but it is a Kentucky whiskey, alternative 74. Kentucky Whiskey, alternative 74. Now, if you are ever, you know, interested, maybe your wife in the future is getting pregnant. You want to have a Jack and Coke with her, or you want to have something. Would you ever dabble with a mocktail just to mix it up For sure?
Speaker 3:It's more of the taste for me. Honestly, Like I'm not the kind of person that is worried about what's going to get me the most messed up, Like I want something that's going to taste good to me as I'm drinking, so that's why I've never been a beer person.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you guys a sample.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Kelly's never been a beer person, she's only liquor. Liquors quicker and maybe just better calorically and nutritionally.
Speaker 3:I also feel like it doesn't upset people's stomach as much as beer. People always say they feel bloated. Oh yeah, I don't want to feel bloated, I'm already fat.
Speaker 1:I was going to bring you in a teaser, but they sent us all the wrong sizes and, of course, like this doesn't even fit any of us, not even her kids. It's like an XX small. Yeah, but I'm going to give you a sample. What do you guys want? Diet Coke, regular Coke, coke Zero spiced Coke.
Speaker 2:You know, since this is different for me, I'll do just a regular Coke with it.
Speaker 3:I'll do the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys are traditionalists. Is this anywhere near a Jack and Coke? Or a whiskey and Coke? Like I just want to get your opinion and be honest, you know. And coke like I just want to get your opinion and be honest, you know, for the mock tailors out there, we want to make sure that they are not steered in the wrong direction okay, it tastes different, but this one does not taste bad I would say it doesn't taste bad, but it's not anywhere near the real thing?
Speaker 3:no, not to me dang it see, I kind of felt like it almost tastes like cough medicine.
Speaker 2:Sorry, yeah, it just took a second sip.
Speaker 1:At least you're on it's right I actually really like it, but maybe it's, maybe it's just me, maybe you have it could be because we just had a sip of like the real thing, Isn't there a saying A palate cleanser.
Speaker 2:We should have brought some crackers.
Speaker 1:You know what I think? It's because, truthfully, you guys will be messy, and messy can be variations. You can be a little buzzed messy.
Speaker 3:Okay, now that I tasted that and then went back to the regular one, it is similar, but I can't figure out what the difference is.
Speaker 2:It's the taste like in the back of the throat. It's like it tastes fine and it hits the back of your throat and it just like it gave me that cough medicine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Distilled non-alcoholic spirit for bourbon cocktails. Tennessee whiskey is not bourbon. I'm not a professional.
Speaker 3:I just drink.
Speaker 1:Well, you are a professional when it comes to hair. Give us an idea of where that started, like your hair journey.
Speaker 3:Honestly, man, growing up I always wanted to do hair but coming from a family of college-educated people, my grandfather was a professor at Duquesne University for 46 years. He was one of the three founders of the psychology department at Duquesne University. He actually passed away back in February and they had a nice little ceremony for him.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker 3:My grandfather was a big inspiration in my life, me being a barber educator. I learned how to educate from my grandfather but, like I was was saying, my family's all college educated. Everybody went to duquesne or pit or whatever nursing school. Yeah, I went to pit for three months, dropped out, went into the carpenter's union. I did that for four years, got my journey's men.
Speaker 3:Uh, there was a guy that I was working with that was retiring at the end of the week and I made a joke because I like to joke around and I'm like man, I can't wait to retire. And he looks at me and goes son, you got about 40 years. And that hit me. And I was driving home and I was like shit, like what do I really want to do? And in the back of my mind I always knew that I wanted to be a barber. Like I was always fascinated with the culture of the barbershop. I always like making people feel good about themselves. So my mom was a special ed teacher my whole life. My mom specialized with early intervention, with autism. So before autism I don't want to say mainstream, I don't know how you want to call it before it was like more prominent, yeah, my mom was already doing stuff with people that had autism, when it was like people didn't really believe in that whole right like the spectrum and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:So I've always had a soft place for people with special needs, which I do have a bunch of clients that are, uh, low functioning autism. I have some that are very high functioning, some that have sensory issues and, um, getting into hair. Let me kind of make my shop a safe place for those kind of people. And I actually got a review this morning from a mother who I think it's crazy that we're even having this conversation because she left a review saying how great me and Theo, the guy that works for me were with her young son who is on the spectrum.
Speaker 3:So I guess I got into it because I like making people feel good and there's nothing that feels better than cutting people before big events, whether it's a funeral, wedding, graduation, first date. I get a lot of high school kids going on first dates, guys going on college visits. That are high school athletes. Shout out to Ty he's my 6' 11 basketball player from NA.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, he committed to.
Speaker 2:Cornell. So not only does, he go to basketball.
Speaker 3:He's super smart.
Speaker 2:How do you reach his head? Do you have to stand on a stepstool? I was nervous.
Speaker 3:honestly, my shoulders do hurt when I'm done, but I keep the chair all the way down to the ground above my head.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a pretty cool job. Honestly. Like I, I honestly couldn't imagine doing anything else. I love making people feel good. I love when the wife is at the shop and she's just super excited to see what her husband looks like. So those are the moments I live for. Um, obviously you can't make everybody happy, but for the ones that you do make happy and the ones that you build that lifelong relationship with, those are the ones that mean the most to me as a barber.
Speaker 2:That's great, Best answer ever. It was really good though.
Speaker 1:But you know what you're talking about, like when it comes to the concisity of or is that a word, concisity?
Speaker 3:It is now.
Speaker 1:I mean even like I kind of was mesmerized by you even talking about like the carpenter's journeyman. My brother, she knows, is a carpenter and like has kind of worked his way up the ranks. But in the same respect it's like you know, college nowadays, I think the new generation gen z is like I don't know if it's worth it to spend $150,000 on something that you really don't know what you want. Because when you went to carpentry school was that a baby tech?
Speaker 3:No, so I only did woodshop and stuff like that in high school so.
Speaker 3:I went to high school at Woodland Hills, yeah, and my whole thing growing up. I either wanted to be a doctor or I wanted to do sports medicine. So, as I said about my dad passing, my dad passed from a massive heart attack when I was 10. Right, so, like my senior project was on causes and preventions of heart attacks, and then my goal was to go to Pitt, apply for the School of Arts and Science, get into something cardiovascular or sports medicine. And I got to pit and I was like I am not smart enough for this. Not that I wasn't smart enough, I didn't have the discipline, honestly, yeah, like.
Speaker 3:That's how I was in my mid-20s, I didn't understand how to be disciplined and it took, unfortunately, me ruining my relationship with my daughter's mom for me to kind of learn how to have more discipline in life. And, um, honestly, once I learned how to be disciplined, that's what I did when I went to barber school. I knew it was going to be hard income wise for me, because I was working at Mario's as a bar back while I was going through barber school, so I was working till two, three in the morning, driving to the barber school, sleeping in my car in the parking lot sometimes because I didn't want to drive all the way home, right?
Speaker 3:So it's sacrifices that you have to make, and there's been times on my barber journey where I almost gave up and went and got a real job. But my wife, amber, was very persistent and believed in me and I'm very fortunate to have someone like her, that she was like you know what? We'll figure it out. Just keep chasing your dream, and I've gotten to do a lot of cool things that we're going to talk about today too nice I want to know if it's the same for men as it is for women.
Speaker 2:So when I go to get my hair done, I know I'm getting a two-for-one deal. I'm not just getting a haircut, I'm getting a free therapy session as well oh yeah, I know everybody's wife, girlfriend and mistress I love that. I think I would enjoy being a barber.
Speaker 3:I love the keyword their mistress you probably hear the craziest things honestly, uh, I don't really have any of like that craziness with, like relationship wise, but hearing, like what other guys go through and what other people are going through, um, whether it's a client that's gone through cancer multiple times, um, he has stage four cancer again, he's in his 70s. But then I also have like these young clients that are super young, like I've. I'm trying to think what my youngest client is probably like three. And then my oldest client his name's Dick Schaefer. He's 92 years old and he still comes once a month.
Speaker 3:And if you go on my Instagram, uh, my photographer, melissa, she comes in once a week and gets content for me and she happened to be recording the one day when I was talking to him and it was the first week that Theo, who works for me, it was his first week in the shop and Theo is 21 years old and I said, dick, what advice would you give yourself at 21? And I had no idea, like it wasn't planned, it wasn't script, nothing. And Melissa just happened to be recording and got the whole conversation where he gave him the most wholesome life advice and I was like damn.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:I could have used that 12 years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure, for sure. I mean I think to myself. I'm like that is really kind of eye opening when you hear those type of stories.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you hear those type of stories. Yeah, so being a barber, I mean obviously like I have some like juicy stuff that I hear from, like being around athletes or like guys that work for the teams, like higher up, and stuff like that. Being around country music artists and yeah, there is a rumor.
Speaker 1:You're signed with a team, a Pittsburgh team.
Speaker 3:I am signed.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Well you do all the athletes part of that team yeah, I go down to the football facility, okay so keyword their football yeah, so steelers no I wish, okay, so pit, yes, university of pit, awesome, congratulations thank you, I've been with them.
Speaker 3:This is my third season, um, so shout out to johnny patrician. He played at Penn State, transferred to Pitt oh wow, I'm a Penn.
Speaker 3:Stater. Oh man, I'm sorry about that, but when Johnny Patrician came back to Pittsburgh, I messaged him and I was like, hey, I would love to kill your haircut. He came in, gave him a haircut and it was when I was starting off in the suites and I was building my clientele in the North Hills and I said for every person you refer, I'll give you a free haircut. Well, every two weeks he would bring a different teammate, so every two weeks he would get a free haircut. And he didn't pay for a haircut until after he went to the NFL draft.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, that's a great story. So that's how this happened yeah.
Speaker 3:And then, uh, terrence moore, who is the starting center for pit uh, he was a freshman at the time and him and johnny, just they were very adamant on me being down there. So they went to the head of football operations and I got a phone call. He's like do you want to come down Friday? Come check out the facility. We have a barber area. He was like a couple coaches want a haircut no big deal. I was like all right, cool, went down there Like, didn't think anything of it, just thought they wanted me to come down do some haircuts. And that was it. And then I got a text a few days later and they're like hey, if you have your COVID vaccination card and stuff like that, we can uh bring you on, you can come down every Tuesday.
Speaker 3:But the thing is back then I couldn't really say anything about it because this is before NIL and things like that. So what I did was I would volunteer my time to go down there and cut the players and it would make it more accessible for the players so that they wouldn't have to come drive out to me, because not everybody has a car. Yeah, and now, thankfully, I'm allowed to post that I go down there and do stuff like that. But I want to give a shout out to Matt. He got drafted by the Indianapolis Colts this weekend.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, he was one of the first Congratulations yeah Colts this weekend. Oh my god, he was one of the first guys I cut Congratulations yeah To Matt. I mean I was watching the draft and I didn't catch that, but, like you know, it is like really interesting to see where everybody gets placed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a very cool experience. Matt was the first one that I had more than a season cutting their hair before they went to the NFL. So seeing like everything Matt went through with like injuries and things like that, is super cool to see, like how he just like no matter what. He just kept working hard and every time he would come in he'd always ask about my daughter.
Speaker 3:And he's like one of those really good guys and there's a few guys on the team that are just like that and I know there's going to be a few more guys that I cut that go to the NFL, hopefully next year.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Can you tell us a little bit more about some of the other haircuts that you've given that stand out to you?
Speaker 3:I'm not going to lie, the coolest haircut I've ever done and I don't think anything will ever top this was cutting Luke Combs in the Steelers locker room before his show last April, so yesterday was a year since I cut luke combs and that story is absolutely nuts how that even came about, so I loki like roasted luke combs on twitter oh so he posted a recap from his show in detroit the weekend before and all I did was quote the tweet and I was like, hey, man, you look a little rough.
Speaker 3:Hit me up if you want to come through for a haircut.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh well, you're so direct we love that you are messy, you are messy, you're bringing the messy.
Speaker 3:I mean it's like either you can be direct or you can like not shoot your shot, I guess. So the next thing I know I'm at work, it's Saturday morning, the day of Luke Combs' show. Not thinking anything of it, my phone's blowing up and I get this message from Ethan, who's his tour manager, and he goes. Hey, dave, this is Ethan. I'm Luke Combs' tour manager. Luke saw your tweet and wanted you to come down to the stadium to cut his hair. I don't know what your schedule's like. Needless to say, I canceled all my appointments, message all my clients. I was like, hey, I'm going to cut the combs, your haircuts on me. And I just remember, like the first thing I did, I called my wife. I'm literally like freaking out. I probably sounded like a little girl. I was like I'm about to cut lou combs. Like get ready. I don't know what you got to do. Do your hair whatever, like we got to get going.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. You tweeted it, he saw it. That's awesome. That's really great.
Speaker 3:And then the coolest part was like I got to park by the tour buses. We got escorted by his security. The worst part of the whole experience was standing outside the Steelers locker room for 15 minutes while he's fishing, finishing sound check.
Speaker 1:I almost threw up like three times I was so nervous, but that's crazy.
Speaker 3:Once I met him, he is the most down-to-earth guy I've ever met. Like normal dude, like he was. He had call of duty, he had golf on, he had basketball shorts, a hoodie like slides, like super chill guy gucci slides I don't know, I think they're like 90 or something, but he's uh
Speaker 3:he's a super cool dude and we had a jack and coke together. He included my wife in the conversation as I'm cutting his hair. We talked about being dads. Um, we talked about his experience. I told him about, uh, when I was at a bar down in nashville and I had no idea who this heavy set guy that was coming on I thought he was like the janitor for the venue and next thing, you know, he started singing and it was absolutely nuts to like. Tell him the story about me singing with a small bar called winners down in nashville and then, you know, cutting his hair for his biggest show that he's ever done. It was an emotional thing for me, probably two weeks later when I realized how big of a thing that was for me for my career, with going to the CT Barber Expo, which is actually this weekend.
Speaker 1:That I'm going to.
Speaker 3:Where is it? At Connecticut, at the Mohegan Sun? Oh, yeah, last year, that's right, but um, where's it at connecticut at the mohegan sun? Oh yeah, yeah. So last year that's when, like, everybody was coming up to me at the expo and they're like yo, you're the dude that roasted luke combs normally, yeah, and he thought it was so funny.
Speaker 2:That is hilarious that is hilarious because he totally could have taken it the wrong way, but his ego, didn't, you know, do that. Oh man, this guy has no ego.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no ego. I mean, it was absolutely nuts how, like once we started having a conversation, it just felt like I was talking to a normal person in the chair, Like it was so normal that when I put the cape on them, I said so what do you do for work Like that's, like my normal?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:You are such a like relaxed, chill, like unfazed. I mean, were you thinking in like that moment? You're like Holy fuck, like you said that you almost threw up. Was it because the excitement?
Speaker 3:the excitement, and so now I look at what people call nervous. I look at it as it you're just very excited about something, so like when I taught at the Barber Expo a couple of weeks ago when, I was one of the six main educators. The way I look at things now is that you're so excited. You're not nervous, You're excited. You're excited for the moment that you're getting because you've been working towards this.
Speaker 1:So that's how.
Speaker 3:I started looking at things because before it's like oh, I'm so nervous.
Speaker 2:You're not nervous, you're excited for this opportunity that's great advice, because I found myself saying like my gosh, I'm so nervous, I'm so nervous, and it's kind of like a bad word to use because then it makes you feel even more nervous. But if you just like change the word to excited and say I'm excited, it kind of like gets the vibes going yeah, in a better direction makes you a bit more positive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and smiley it's a, it's a mental thing, honestly, anything like that. I mean just like anxiety. That's something I've had to work on. I've always been like a super anxious person my whole life and, uh, just like that switch in mindset has been huge for me. Do you think it's genetic?
Speaker 1:the anxious person, or do you think that there was something that kind of influenced that?
Speaker 3:Man, I mean that's a super deep question. I mean I could say, probably like when my dad passed, like I just became more of an anxious, overthinking person and I'll openly admit I'm an overthinker, I overthink anything like I've had people that oh, my whole life like so, even as a barber, like I'm confident in my haircuts, I'm confident in my skill set, but, like, if someone's not like oh, I love the the haircut or something, I'm like all right, like what did I do wrong?
Speaker 3:or like, even like with my wife, like sometimes, like her response, I'll be like what's wrong, and she's like nothing, like I'll ask her a simple question. It's just like where my mind goes, and it's been like that since I was younger, but it's also something that I've been working on and it's more so. It's not always what you did or what you said. It's some people just aren't good at communicating a response and you need to be okay with that, cause I've had some people that didn't really give me a good response of a haircut, and then I see them on my schedule two weeks later and I'm like so it's all, it's all a perception thing.
Speaker 3:And then also there's people that I know that are like they're like oh, whatever, I don't care what they think, I don't yeah but me like, I always want to make everybody happy because in my line of work returning clients and referrals are huge, so trying to make everybody happy is like my job. I.
Speaker 1:I think you and Kelly share that in common.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do. So I think the overthinking is a gift, because it's what drives us to keep doing better and better, because we're just constantly like Productive anxiety or productive overthinking.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:My seven-year-old does it, my daughter, she's just like me in that sense, tell us about her, my daughter Ainsley is literally. Can we give her a shout out? Tell us about her.
Speaker 2:My daughter Ainsley is literally Shout out to Ainsley.
Speaker 3:Ainsley is literally the best thing ever.
Speaker 1:I like that name.
Speaker 3:Where'd you come up with that? So, me and my ex, just we wanted to come up with something unique, which I'll give my ex credit. All three of her kids have unique names. So her son, his name's Emmett which you never hear of a young Emmett and then her I want to say she's 10 weeks, 9 weeks, 10 weeks, oh wow, her daughter. Her name is Opal.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. That's cute. Yeah, that's really cute.
Speaker 3:And, honestly, me and Lauren have been on really good terms the past few years. Obviously, when you first split and go through custody, child support, all that stuff not necessarily the best situation, but did you have that?
Speaker 1:app to talk to each other we did.
Speaker 3:Okay, I've heard a lot about that Um it's for like legal reasons? Yeah, because they can pull the conversations. You can't delete the conversations, things like that. It's called app close and we use that, but, um, we use that, but we don't use that anymore. We haven't used that in years. Anyways, back to my daughter.
Speaker 1:On a positive note.
Speaker 3:Hey, this is real talk. This is real talk, yeah, and anyways, my daughter Ainsley. The way we came up with her name was we wanted something unique and people got us this stupid book that has like all these names.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I just remember like every day we would go through like a crazy amount of pages.
Speaker 2:None of the names are good.
Speaker 3:Well, the problem is, we ended up with like 25 names for each gender and I'm like this is not productive. And I don't remember where or which one of us saw the name ainsley and then we like looked it up and it means like grassy knoll or something I don't know. Wait, no, what is a knoll? Like an island.
Speaker 1:Oh, grassy grassy, no, grassy island I like that yeah, but uh, like a small island. Yeah, I, I don't know grassy.
Speaker 3:No, I'm gonna have to look it up but the only, uh, the only requirement that I had for our daughter's name was I have a grandmother. She is 98 years old, still alive to this day, still lives on her own okay, I was like grandma who? My grandma peters, my dad's mom. Hey, grandma peters, yeah, hi, shout out, but uh, we wanted her to have some part of my grandmother's name, so her middle name is josephine that's a good name and, uh, she takes very big pride in her middle name.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, my daughter. She loves my grandmother, um, but yeah, it's, that's how I came up with ainsley's name. But my daughter ainsley is absolutely my world and I'm super excited that this weekend's going to be her first barber expo. So she wants to be a barber and that's awesome. I'm going to introduce her to a bunch of like the female barber influencers that I'm friends with and take her around, and our goal is the summer, once softball is over, for me to start teaching her to cut hair.
Speaker 2:Nice, you're doing something right as a father if your daughter wants to do like what you do.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So she comes down to the football facility with me in the summer and takes over the players lounge and all the players love her. Kitchener doozy loves her. Honestly, like I don't know if you guys knew who jason zucker is. He used to play for the pittsburgh penguins. He's yeah the nashville predators. So I was jason's barber all three years he was in pittsburgh and when the penguins didn't resign him my daughter protested, going to games like her and jason were like best friends oh my god, I love that your daughter is definitely like a social butterfly, like you said but uh yeah, ainsley's killing it in softball.
Speaker 3:This is her second year of softball. She got invited to be on the travel softball team. How old is she? In what grade? She's seven and she's in second grade okay, nice, nice.
Speaker 1:So I guess, yeah, second grade Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's crazy, her team's still undefeated. They've beat every team by 10 or more runs. It's been nice being on the other side of getting their ass whooped this year.
Speaker 1:I can imagine Second grade. Wow, I can't imagine you with like a 10-year-old. You seem so young yourself. Yeah. I know so you must have had her when you were pretty young.
Speaker 3:I was 25. Okay, that's, she'll be eight in July, so yeah, Okay, that's pretty young still.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, I said 10. I'm sorry, I'm riding up or adding up.
Speaker 3:Hey, I mean she's seven going on 17, though I mean the attitude.
Speaker 2:So we have like some questions from our viewers. Somebody said what is the secret to a straight razor fade?
Speaker 3:um, the secret is not setting in hard guidelines, so always have something sharper to remove the guideline. So like, if you go in and set your initial guideline with your sharpest tool, you're not going to be able to remove it. So I don't know how many people here understand, uh, haircutting. So I always set in my guideline with my clip clipper closed and then come in with my trimmer because my trimmer is going to be the shortest length that I have, but I also zero gap all my stuff.
Speaker 1:So you maybe decipher. I'm not really familiar.
Speaker 2:That sounds really hard.
Speaker 1:Um, like a clipper, a trimmer is like more like a clippers for, like, fading the sides of your head.
Speaker 3:Okay, and then the trimmer is like what I would use to like line up.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:That makes sense. So you're putting, you're like imagine the clipper is used for the painting and then the framing is the trimmer that's a good analogy yeah, you're an artist.
Speaker 1:Way, I can think about it yeah, do you consider yourself an artist?
Speaker 3:uh, that's a good question.
Speaker 3:Um, I'm not the one that does like designs and stuff like that but, I, do consider being a barber an art, because you're doing light to dark and also shaping it based on head shape. You're also creating shapes that aren't there with the client's head to give them more of a masculine shape, which is obviously square, yeah, Um. But there's people that I work with and people that I'm friends with that I consider barber artists. So there's this guy that let's cut it. Uh, he works with OP 45, which is one of the brands I work for. He also works for Babalus and level three. The designs and hair color and stuff that this guy does is absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1:Like I'll be standing there watching him and just absolutely be mind blown I need to see some of that stuff because I'm always intrigued with it and I really wanted you to like do me up, like she had the idea to like do something crazy with my hair. I think the only downfall is like I just had a shoot with the agency and they're like no, we just did this. Like give me a couple months to like throw out your images. Oh, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know hair grows fast, yeah, usually uh, actually, hair only grows about a quarter inch a month okay, typically typically it varies person to person, but the average yeah, yeah, like I buzzed it like august of 2023 and I just loved it, it was so, and like it was just so invigorating, it felt like a new person.
Speaker 3:But then you're like okay, I have calyx and this is a long time to get back to longer hair yeah, um, I definitely have some people that they went from like your hair length to buzzed and they're like so how long until I'm back?
Speaker 3:they didn't like it not that they didn't like it, it's just, um, they thought that they wanted to like reinvent themselves, right, because that's like a common thing. Like guys will come in and I send out like a text all my first time clients like hey, bring a reference picture so I know what you want. And like someone will come in and look like I don't even know, I can't even give a good example, but then they'll show like a picture of like david beckham and it's like bro, you I feel like that's always a reference photo when you see a buzz david back on like they'll show you a picture of like, uh, travis kelsey, or oh yeah, oh, my god, I hate when moms come in and they're like hey, can you give my son the travis kelsey cut?
Speaker 3:you mean a skin fade? Yeah, I can give your son a skin funny.
Speaker 1:I hate that yeah, like those are the things that drive barbers nuts, I know, because it's not gonna look like that person. No at all, not at all.
Speaker 3:I always I'll admit I was always like referencing the david beckham because he just thought he was so cool hey, I mean, I wish I could make everyone look that handsome well, I told my husband, I said I'm sending him to you because he just got out of the military so he needs to find like a cut that's not a military haircut Now.
Speaker 3:I think that you're going to view everything as a military haircut, though that's a skin fade, unless it's like a lower skin fade or like a mid skin fade, and I've noticed with all of my military clients they all still love the high skin fade with like more length on top.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's what we're going for, but like I've actually been cutting it myself and he's got like it's like this little mushroom poof on the top, so, I need you to help me. I need to send them your way.
Speaker 3:I'll fix it.
Speaker 1:Okay, thank you. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:Now that another question we have do you cut your own hair?
Speaker 3:No, another question we have.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 3:cut your own hair. No, I have uh friends that are barbers in pittsburgh and, uh, I'll go to one of them or like, right now is like hair show season, oh. So, you know, I pull my uh, I pull my educator card and have one of the other educators cut me. So what's been nice is I'm friends with a few different educators and I just go over to their booth and I'm like, hey, you need a model. Still, you can cut my hair. That's the key. Yeah, so that's what I'm doing this weekend I'm holding out to get my haircut at the expo. Yes, sir, yeah.
Speaker 2:Is there like a hair wax that you recommend for clients who have like crazy cow licks, like you were talking about?
Speaker 3:exactly. Um, so I'm very I wouldn't say I'm against pomade, but um, I don't like the shiny shininess, so I would always go with like a matte paste or okay something that's less shiny. Um, a lot of the high school kids love the sea salt spray and then oh yeah, but that dries it out, I feel yeah, so sea salt spray and texture powder. Um, you have to wash your hair every day with that because, if not, your hair will become matted.
Speaker 3:Have you ever seen like a cat with like super long fur and it just gets super matted yeah, that's what will happen to your hair like that's what I tell, that's what I tell the moms, it's like the beach.
Speaker 3:Hair like this, like it's sea salt, yeah, so I tell the moms I'm like you have to make sure they wash their hair before they reapply anymore, otherwise you're yeah gonna want to shave their head well, I noticed like even with me, like living in la, it would like dry my hair out because of the desert and then my hair works better here because of the humidity yeah, if you would use sea salt spray now, you would notice a huge difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that you'd. So sea salt spray gives you the flexibility to restyle your hair throughout the day, as where um homemade matte paste is more difficult to, it's not as like pliable and flexible throughout the day, yeah, but like texture powder and sea salt sprayer more flexible in that sense.
Speaker 2:So those are my recommendations so it really seems like you're living your best life right now, but but what's next for you?
Speaker 3:So I actually had a phone call yesterday with a clipper company I can't say what clipper company because I haven't signed anything yet but there is something coming up with a clipper brand. They're a newer clipper brand and the guy who is the head of educators and ambassadors Did you ambassadors.
Speaker 1:They're a new clipper brand or a new or newer, newer, newer. Okay, I thought you said new york for some reason they've only been around a few years.
Speaker 3:but, um, I used to work for a scissor company called shark, finn and willie, who was the head guy of education and the ambassador program, ended up taking a position with this company and I saw him at ABS Chicago, which is the America Beauty Show. That was two weeks ago in Chicago, and we talked and he told me to make sure that I came and saw him. But I saw him post something the other day and I reached out and we decided to work together again.
Speaker 3:So I'm super excited and hopefully moving into an educator role with them in the next couple of months.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you are like your Pittsburgh, dave. What are some things that you do like to do in the Pittsburgh area?
Speaker 3:Man, like I said before, I'm very big into sports, so Penguin Games, steeler Games, pirate Games I obviously got to go to Pitt Games to support my guys. I love when I get the field passes, get to go down there, see them, take my daughter down there. That was probably one of the coolest moments because my daughter sees the guys, my daughter down there. That was probably one of the coolest moments because, like, my daughter sees the guy, sees the guys, she sees the team down the facility at my shop, things like that. She sees them without the pads and helmet on. So like when they come up to her, like when we're down on the field and they come say hi to her, give her a pair of gloves, stuff like that, that's pretty cool because she's like oh my god, that was terrence or like that was so, and so, oh man, that's coach narduzzi, the guy that like gave me a hug the other day it doesn't connect for her until, like, we're there.
Speaker 3:That was like when I was cutting jason. She was like yeah, whatever, like he's nice, he's a cool dude. But then we go to a hockey game and he gets into a fight or scores a goal and yeah she's like my dad cuts you and like banging on the glass and she's uh, yeah, she.
Speaker 3:So those are my favorite moments like doing that kind of stuff, and now that my daughter's old enough to enjoy sports, it's a cool thing I'm really looking forward to. Uh, we have sweet seats for her softball team in june, so I'm really looking forward to that now that she's more involved in softball, so I think she's going to be more involved in the game.
Speaker 1:You have sweet seats for her softball team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so her team actually provided this for all the girls and their parents.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, I want to get on that team. Yeah, me too. Yeah, or be part of it, maybe, ava.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, me too, yeah or be part of it, maybe, ava? Yeah, I have some connections, but nothing that good. Oh yeah, I cut a few of the pirates uh, the head of player development for the pirates but I don't have any pool like that where I can get an entire suite.
Speaker 2:Oh my god so are you like a grub hub guy, door gosh dash guy, or do you go out to?
Speaker 1:eat uh I love this question, so shout out to my accountant tabitha okay, what a name. I love tabitha loving.
Speaker 3:So she works for pie accounting. I'm gonna give you a whole rundown. So my accounting is owned by the one brand that I work for. So chris bossio owns tomb 45, which merged with op 45 I worked or more, merged with Barbara Josh OP, which is the online education brand that I work with. So now it's OP45, but Bossio owns Pi Accounting, which is a accounting firm that specializes in the beauty industry. So they know, like the write offs and things like that, and they guide you on how to budget and things along that nature. On how to budget and things along that nature. Well, last year me and tabitha had our meeting and she goes you need to download rocket money and I'm like, all right, I love rocket. Well, I found out that in four months I spent 3 500 on doordash.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I'm probably in the same boat with you. Oh my god, you guys are both bad. I need to download that app.
Speaker 3:I always am telling my wife.
Speaker 2:I'm like we need to eat at home, and I'll literally say that the same day that I order shit.
Speaker 3:when I get home from work I'll be like so what are we doing for dinner? And she's like I don't know. I was like what do you want me to order? I've definitely done a lot better.
Speaker 1:But Tabitha was $3,500. What does that equate to on average per?
Speaker 2:month, that's a lot $3,000.
Speaker 1:A little over $3,000. A little over $1,000 a month, yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey, food is expensive. I think it's gone up 30% in the last two years in price.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my ex was like that he would just order everything. He's like. He would just order everything he's like well, groceries are so expensive and we're so busy.
Speaker 2:So like you get home and you're like oh shit, I didn't go grocery shopping.
Speaker 1:But how do our parents do that?
Speaker 3:They did it, it was way cheaper back then I feel like and there was more time in the day.
Speaker 1:I swear the days are shorter now, but global warming makes the day shorter.
Speaker 3:Tabitha definitely was on me about that. I've done a lot better, I will say, but 100% DoorDash is my choice.
Speaker 1:Now, when you say a lot better, did you decrease by 500 a month?
Speaker 3:I decreased by. I'd say I cut it in half, okay, but I am working on getting it down more than that, because I want to start definitely putting more money aside Doing better with that kind of stuff. Yeah, because I'm the kind of person your income creeps, so does my lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Everyone's like that.
Speaker 3:I looked at how much I made last year and I said where the fuck did all that go? Like I made really good money last year and I'm like I literally looked at my wife. I was like but I will say like self-employment tax and all that is crazy, how much money I owed the irs. I was like I know, that's no joke with the 1099 dude, I hate that.
Speaker 1:I mean it's it's like it does a discipline thing aspect to it. You really do have to be like okay, 30 is going to be given back some at the end of the year yeah, so I actually became an s corp, so I payroll myself, so I pay less now, oh good, S-Corp is different than LLC.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so S-Corp is where you have a complete, separate business account and personal account. And then I use a company called gusto for payroll so I pay myself out of my business account. So it takes what like 1800 every two weeks and then I get paid 1100, so they take the taxes out for me wow, you're really giving us the numbers.
Speaker 3:I like that well, it's a rough estimate. I can't think of how much I actually have taken out, but uh, like I said, tabitha and pie counting set me up with that, so I'm very fortunate for them, because I would be owing a lot more money if I didn't we might need to speak to tabitha yeah hey, they they take anybody, so okay, they don't just do uh, barbers and hairstylists now, so yeah, yeah, when you're not cutting hair and you're not spending time with your daughter and your wife like what is your favorite things to do my wife would absolutely kill me if I wasn't honest about this.
Speaker 2:So I play call of duty with my friends okay like my friends that's it honestly, the vice video that's my biggest vice.
Speaker 3:So I come home from work, spend time with my wife, eat dinner and if I'm like an hour late coming home, my friend james is like calling me. He's like what are you getting on? What time are you getting on? It's a nightly thing and, um the way my wife looks at it like I could be going out and doing anything else.
Speaker 2:That's negative. A strip club At least you're home. Yeah, you're safe.
Speaker 3:I mean, or the bar. She also knows that these are, like some of my best friends, like I mean. This is like our guy time. This is when we talk. We talk about what's going on.
Speaker 3:We also are yelling at little kids on there but animals it's, it's so much fun and like, uh, james and shane and the guys that I play with eric, we all just uh, it's like, it's, it's a nice like unwinding time for me, like, because, like, even though I love what I do, sometimes it is very stressful. So, having time to like decompress before going to bed and then also, like I like, spending time with my dog. We have a Cocker Spaniel. His name is Hank. Oh, he, he is, uh, my wife's baby.
Speaker 3:You would think she gave birth to him the way she treats him.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I feel like she chooses him over me probably, but uh, did she have him before you?
Speaker 3:no, so we got him two years ago, so he'll be two this july, but hank is. Hank cost me a lot of money, honestly, like less than six months, and he ate something he shouldn't have. Oh no. And they had to like, cut him open, go into his intestines.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, he almost died.
Speaker 3:Yeah, twenty five hundred dollars later, oh my God, do you have?
Speaker 1:pet insurance. We do now, but like dude.
Speaker 3:I, my wife, said I was an asshole, but I was like twenty five hundred or three hundred, to put them down I know my husband says that I have three dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a huge difference in price.
Speaker 3:That's what I said like I mean, she was like what about ainsley, what about me? And I'm like what about you?
Speaker 1:guys have a hundred dollar difference and you have a better health plan yeah, but I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3:uh, he is an a-hole, but I but I do love coming home to him. He's always so excited to see me. He's very protective of my wife and daughter, and the cute little moments outweigh his asshole moments. When I see him laying with my wife or him and my daughter cuddling on the couch while she's on the iPad. There's moments where you're like, oh, I've got out yeah, I get this picture. But yeah, my daughter, she yells at me when I'm like I want to take him to the farm, just want to go.
Speaker 2:Let him go live on a farm right we all know what the farm is, I don't know. I just I feel like I had friends and they're like my dad took the dog to the farm. It's like oh, I think I know what happened.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're saying like executed. I mean, maybe that's not what you're talking about. He's talking about the country You're talking about a real farm.
Speaker 3:Oh no, I would never want that.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't even think that, but now it makes a good point.
Speaker 3:No, so my dad had a friend that owned a farm when I was a kid Dark, she's got a dark we had a mother dog and it had five puppies, oh wow. And he took a few of the puppies to the farm because they were going to be farm dogs. So what they did was they taught them how to herd the animals.
Speaker 1:That's what I meant. I didn't mean go and take them out behind the barn and shoot them. I know what you meant. She sometimes got a dark mind that goes there. I need to edit that part out. I kind of love it. I kind of love it.
Speaker 3:Don't let my wife see that one. She's going to think'm this like terrible person. Every time I say that it's so funny.
Speaker 1:Like Kelly, don't let her fool you. She's blonde and bubbly, but she got sometimes goes a little dark.
Speaker 3:That was great.
Speaker 1:Honestly, oh my God, I got to ask you, as a young entrepreneur yourself, what can you recommend to people that are starting out, like you know, want to not work for anybody, don't want to have a boss, really want to believe in their passion, as, like you know, you had to go through those like trial stages of like making money at Mario's and you know, even recommend, recommend anything to us to continue what we do and what we love, but but you know, to kind of get to that profitable stage yeah.
Speaker 3:so, uh, what you're saying for, like the advice, that's literally like the younger me, I didn't want to work for anybody, I want to be my own boss. I don't like listening to people. I had an authority issue growing up but, uh, my biggest advice would be to just chase your dream, go for it. Sign up for barber school, sign up for whatever trade school it is that you want to do. If you want to be a hair artist, makeup artist, if you want to be a woodshop worker and build custom cabinets, if you want to start a YouTube channel, whatever it is like, you just need to go full force at it. I mean, if you half ass it, it's going to take you that much longer. Full force at it. I mean, if you half-ass it, it's going to take you that much longer.
Speaker 3:And I'm very fortunate to have mentors that have cut my time down. On things that took them 10 years, it only took me five years, and then some things that took them five years only took me two years. So, having people that can give me that kind of feedback, that's the impact I'd like to have on other people. I would also say, like, the biggest thing is like, don't be afraid of what your family or other people are going to think? Um, they may say they're going to disown you or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:but at the end of the day their family and they'll eventually come back around one way or another. And, um, I'm very fortunate that, even though my mom didn't always agree with the decisions I've made in life, she's always been there and been supportive of me and has always been there for me and my daughter. And I'm very fortunate to have a mom like that, because I do have friends and relatives that don't have that support and I don't have that support. And, um, I don't know, I just am very thankful to have people that have been there for me when I've questioned my decisions and people that have been there to push me. So, making sure you have a good support system while you're going through those hard changes, because, I mean, I know people that are older than me that are just now finding their passion and pursuing it. You're never too old to do what you want. It's a matter of when the situation is right for you.
Speaker 3:I mean, I did go and meet with the barber school and I was with my daughter's mom, but at that time I had bigger obligations to my ex.
Speaker 3:At that time we were living together, she was working full time and barber school. Back then they didn't have financial aid, so it was all out of pocket and I couldn't put that financial strain on my ex and even though I knew that's what I wanted to do, we had a conversation and I mean, whether she was right or wrong about my passion, which obviously she was wrong, but at the time she was right about our financial situation. At the time we didn't know that she was pregnant when we had this conversation. So I'm very thankful that I put it off, maybe, this conversation. So I'm very thankful that I put it off, maybe, but at the same time I'm glad that I finally made the decision to go to barber school, because I'd probably be hopping job to job or, yes, something like that. So I guess, in a sense, like, if you're financially stable enough or have the support or still living at home, why not chase your dream at that point?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wish, I wish I would have taken that chance when I was still living at home with my mom where I didn't have financial responsibility, where I didn't have a significant other that I had to support, make sure that I was there supporting them. And I will say, my daughter's mom was a very hard worker when we were together and the biggest thing for me was I didn't want to let her down, make her feel like she had to carry everything herself, whereas my wife, when I did go to barber school, when we were, when I was worried about finances, she was like, look, if you have to pick up another job outside of Mario's or whatever, we'll figure it out. So all she had to do, all we had to do, was make it nine months, that's it. Barber school is nine months, 1,250 hours.
Speaker 3:So once I made that 1,250 hours, I went to a barber shop and I was working open to close six days a week. I still work six days a week, sometimes seven, but it's because I have goals that I want to reach and eventually I want to get to the place where I don't have to work that much. Right, you have a team, yeah. So I will say having theo has relieved a lot of that for me, because I can remind me theo is your the barber that works for me okay, so like when I go to these expos.
Speaker 3:Theo's holding down the barber shop. He's the only one there cutting hair. He's taking walk-ins appointments, yes. So having someone like that and I think the craziest part is he's only 22 years old wow. So the fact that I felt comfortable enough to trust him with the key to my barber shop to run it while I'm gone is a huge thing.
Speaker 3:So that sounds, you got someone special yeah, so yeah and I told him I was like if you ever want to go to a show, we can shut down the shop. You can come with me. I was like I'll introduce you to people because I mean you can tell he's passionate about it. So I'm excited to see where he is in five years, because he's only been out of barber school, I want to say a little over eight months, so we'll see. Yeah, I'm very excited for him cheers yeah, and cheers to you, pittsburgh.
Speaker 2:This has been really fun it's already been an hour, so yeah we're out of time but um you really are inspiring, and this was a good time yeah, and I'm gonna ask you one last question, if we have a second.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what question do you have for me and kelly?
Speaker 3:what inspired you guys to do this podcast, what made you guys so passionate about this? Because, uh, the episodes that I have seen, it seems like you guys really enjoy this a lot and, um, I honestly have considered doing like a barber version of something like this you should where it's like either they're in person or virtual, or like I do these at like the hair shows and have like a booth where I do these with people.
Speaker 3:You could do all of the above, yeah, so I guess what is the biggest advice you guys have on that? And then also, like, I checked out the studio me space today and I actually got some more information about possibly doing some stuff here.
Speaker 2:But this is like I think my advice would be never skip a week. Like when we got started, we decided we were going to release a video every Wednesday and we're not going to miss that to keep our momentum going and we're just going to keep going with it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think the driving force for me is, like you said, like I had hopped from job to job to job when I really knew from an early age, like I wanted to be a host. I wanted to be, you know, in comedy I wanted to be an actor, but like I didn't know how to do it. And finally, creating something that I'm passionate about, like the mocktails with the drinkers, like that really helps me like get excited every day to be like hey, like I want to create a new mocktail, that like I can feel like I'm part of the experience with you guys. So that's my driving force and I think that you definitely need to have a podcast and you need to get us to help you produce it.
Speaker 3:Hey, I want to do something that's more unique. Unique and that's going to be more like thought provoking questions, like you guys asked me, and things that are like a little bit more deeper than how to build clientele, and stuff like that. Barbers that have been in the game for 20 years, they're like man, I never thought of that because, there's definitely times where I'm in education where I think like, oh, I know a lot. And then someone shows something and I'm like what the hell? I didn't know you could do that yeah.
Speaker 3:But like that's a cool thing for me when I'm like teaching at expos, when people come up to me after my class and they're like I didn't even know you could freehand a beard or use a straight razor to get the flyaway hairs or stuff like that, like I. So many people were like coming up to me about that and that was a pretty cool moment for me.
Speaker 1:Do you need a?
Speaker 3:top off for the final cheers.
Speaker 1:I am good right now You're good. Yeah, I'm good right now too. You got to do other work today.
Speaker 2:Cheers to you. Pittsburgh Dave, Pittsburgh Dave, thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 1:Mocktails or Messy. This is Ryan Frankofsky and Kelly Musgorski.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening to Mocktails or Messy. This is Pittsburgh, dave, appreciate it man.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys. We'll see you soon in the shop, Of course.