‘The same as a canvas, to me’

WASHINGTON — Hours before his long-awaited prom night, 17-year-old Jesse Quinones stood up from a barber’s chair with a feeling of despair deep in his chest, sporting the worst haircut he would ever receive.

A stylist had “butchered” his hair, Quinones said, with uneven lines on the top, and some patches even buzzed down to the scalp. He rushed home to shave his head completely bald, swearing he’d never let someone else mess up his look that badly again. From that moment on, he cut his own hair, and eventually that of his friends’ when they started asking where he got it done.

He went on to complete barber school and open his own business near Washington’s square in March of 2015 — Off the Top Barber Shop. A decade later, he’s still going strong, and still cutting his own hair.

“The feeling I got after giving myself a good haircut, I wanted to give that feeling to other people. It’s confidence, you feel brand-new, you feel fresh,” Quinones said. “If I ran into [the stylist] today, I’d probably thank her, because I don’t think I’d be cutting hair today if it wasn’t for that moment. It was bad, it was like my origin story, almost.”

One of roughly 20 places in Washington to get a haircut, Off the Top has carved out its own niche. Quinones said a sizable chunk of his clientele were men seeking a male barber, plus a decent share from people of color in the market for a barber familiar with their hair types.

Others have sought him out for his experience with more modern, trendy styles. Specifically, Off the Top specializes in fades, tapers and flat tops. It also offers a service rarely found in the Washington area: designs — temporary artwork etched into a side shave or undercut, depicting anything from flowing lines and geometric patterns to logos and recognizable characters.

It’s not a skill taught in barber school. Quinones said he learned it from years of on-the-job practice, applying techniques from his informal artistic background. As a child, the barber-to-be won an award for a charcoal drawing he made in high school, and learned to love illustration in general with help from his older brother.

Haircuts offered a medium of expression like any other.

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“Using the trimmers, you have to use the corner instead of a point like you would on a pencil, so it does present its challenges but the more you do them, the better you get,” he said of his designs. “The back of somebody’s head is the same as a canvas, to me, or a piece of paper. But as far as the tools go, that is what makes a difference between those mediums.”

It mixes the challenges of other formats, however.

Like printmaking, hair trimmers can only subtract space, they can’t add it, and like an oil painting, mistakes can’t be erased or easily covered. Perhaps the greatest limitation of the medium: it’s not feasible to practice a design before doing it on a paying customer’s head.

“It’s tough to do on a mannequin, because of how the hair is placed on a mannequin head,” Quinones said. “It’s spaced further apart than on a natural human head. It’s not as dense, so you can’t get as clean a line. You can maybe do a little bit, but I never practice on a mannequin. It’s all hands-on, with a human.”

Despite the precision, technical demands, and inherent lack of test runs, Quinones said he’d only messed up once.

While shaving a Tigerhawk logo, he cut some of the Iowa icon’s elements facing the wrong way. When he recognized his error, the barber took a beat, reassessed the space he had to work with, and redid the design to cover it on the spot. He said the recipient’s family never complained, or even mentioned the issue. He doubts they noticed it before it was fixed.

“That one is forever embedded in the back of my mind, to always have a reference when you’re doing a design,” he said. “I have them hold up a phone, or I’ll set it up on my back bar and go from there.”

Much like with his own catastrophic haircut at 17, the barber took that incident to heart. To this day, he refuses to shave a design without a visual reference in front of him. And once in a blue moon, he turns away clients asking for looks too complex or too big for their head size — something he’s only had to do about five times, in his estimation.

Otherwise, Quinones has a perfect record in an art form with no erasers, no re-dos and no practice runs.

The hardest part of each cut is getting over the nerves.

“You kind of push through it, have some self-confidence,” the barber said. “Before I say yes, I know I have the ability to do it, it’s just a matter of working out in my mind, how. But from the moment I say, ‘Yes,’ I’m comfortable.”

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Off the Top’s lights can sometimes be seen shining through the shop’s massive front windows late at night, as Quinones takes appointments at odd hours. The barber said it was “really, really tough to say no” when clients needed a cut, even when they booked times outside the typical schedule.

“I’ve been in that situation where I’ve needed a haircut and couldn’t get one, and I remember that feeling,” he said. “I guess I’d say I’m a softy, when it comes to people needing a haircut!”

Those long hours can be taxing on any professional’s body.

Quinones said his job required long hours on his feet, with plenty of strain on his neck, back and shoulders. He keeps steady hands for hours at a time, and fills his days with active conversations and new faces.

The barber said he worked out every day, if only for a few minutes, to keep himself limber. He typically takes a two-hour lunch break to recharge between appointments, and when he gets home each night, Quinones usually reserves a few minutes to sit alone in silence, without his phone, before diving into “dad mode.”

“You have 20-some odd conversations throughout the day, and it’s kind of hard to just turn that off. Having 10-15 minutes of pure quiet, or just listening to music, I think that’s important, mentally,” he said. “I just sit and I decompress, kind of relaxing. Thinking about the day that I’ve had, and the day that I’m going to have the following day. It’s one of those things that I need, and I absolutely cherish.”

The owner of Off The Top works alone. Quinones has never hired a second barber, and he has no plans to. Nor does he plan on expanding his business or making other substantial changes any time soon.

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It’s a simple formula, and it works: customers show up, get their hair cut, love it, and come back. Sometimes, they refer their friends, and Quinones said he saw a new face walk through his door at least once a day.

The owner said he couldn’t ask for much more than that.

“I do miss the camaraderie of having a person next to me, but I’m OK with just being a single shop,” Quinones said. “I’ll cut as long as I can stand, and as long as my hands can move and as long as my eyes are good.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com