The Black-Owned business series: Fire Cuts MP

At Central Michigan University multiple students have off-campus businesses. That can range from businesses regarding braiding hair, cutting hair, making clothes, doing nails, etc. Student Justin Hails has been cutting hair for a while on campus and he talks about some challenges he had to face starting something new such as cutting other people's hair. Hails likes to refer to himself as self-made and he enjoys giving advice to other students that are thinking about starting their own businesses on or off-campus in the future.

Hails started off cutting from his dorm room during his earlier years in undergrad and eventually, he started growing as a barber and he was able to grow on campus and from his dorm to his new apartment. Before he started cutting hair on campus, he was just a small-town kid from the East Side of Detroit that played football and he was dedicated to his sport. Things such as cutting hair didn't matter to him.

"Growing up, I was extremely dedicated to football. It was essentially my life. Cutting hair has never once crossed my mind when I was in high school playing football and winning awards. It just sort of happened. Being competitive, winning games, and awards were some of the only things on my mind when I was younger," Hails said.

Young Black men are very passionate about their sports and Hails was very determined to go far within his. When Hails came to Central Michigan University, he decided to try out for the football team. He was then given a choice, to follow this dream of making it big in football or to do what he thought was best for him and that was by receiving his college degree.

As Hails started to discover himself in college, he recognized that he cares a lot about his image and how he presents himself. Hails had a revelation that as a Black student on campus, it's harder to find another Black person on or near campus that knows how to service other Black students.

"To me, presentation is everything. How you present yourself to others or how you leave out of your home looking a certain kind of way matters because you never know who you're going to run into and you never know what kind of opportunity will be presented," Hails explained. "I already knew that us being in such a white area, I would have to go back and forth home just to get my hair cut and that starts to take a toll on my tank, my miles, and my pockets honestly and from that point forward, I decided to try cutting my own hair."

Hails started cutting on his own hair and started perfecting his craft. He would work on taking care of his waves, perfecting his fades, and learning how to use his tools on himself. As time progressed, he started to realize that he was not too bad at this cutting hair thing.

Hails continued to practice on himself but, he decided to turn it up a notch and watch Instagram videos and YouTube videos on how to do specific cuts and how to get better at cutting hair. Hails didn't attend any barber school, he just watched and he was able to learn visually from others. Early in 2021, Hail started to promote his work and he was able to book clients.

Even though Hails started out with not much clientele his empire began to grow and he was taken aback by it, he realized that he had to get to work.

"When I started out, I was only doing four cuts a week, now I'm doing about 24 cuts a week. People do ask me how it feels to have something go from being so small to so big and I just tell them that I look at it as a job. Fire Cuts MP is something special to me don't get me wrong but, sometimes I just don't see what other people see. I see Fire Cuts MP as a job sometimes," Hails stated.

Hails continued to learn more about cutting Black hair and he learned how to be a better businessman as well. "Originally, I was planning on only cutting waves because that was my desired hairstyle but since that, I've expanded to a whole bunch of different styles. I now style white guys' hair, high top fades, women's eyebrows, shape-ups, and low fades," Hails explained. "I'm proud of myself and this self-made journey and even though after graduation I don't plan on taking this haircut business any further, I wouldn't have this journey any other way."