Spotlight on Business: Hollywood Cuts

Published 7:45 am Sunday, January 11, 2015

VALDOSTA — Isaiah Mangham’s road to opening Hollywood Cuts started at a Home Depot distribution center.

That’s where a co-worker, Brandon, offered to cut his hair.

Brandon’s work inspired Mangham.

“I fell in love with the art of cutting hair and wanted to learn how to do it myself,” said Mangham.

So, he started going to school for it at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College.

“At the time, I was thinking of a career field to get into,” said Mangham. “I was tired of working ordinary jobs, job-to-job. I wanted to get into a career field.”

While going to class, Mangham cut hair at home for practice.

“Everybody was telling me that’s the only way to get better, to pick up the clippers and go to work.”

He started by paying his friend, Quez, $5 to let him cut his hair.

As his skills improved, word spread.

“I started cutting everybody in the neighborhood. I kept working at it, working at it nonstop. If I wasn’t at school, I was cutting hair.”

The work paid off.

After finishing school and passing his board exam, Mangham worked for a few salons and barbershops around town, including Awesome Kuts and Melaneez Beauty Salon, practicing and picking up different skills.

As part of his classes, Mangham designed his own barbershop: the layout, the design, the color scheme.

It’s something he went back to when he got ready to open his shop, which he did in December.

“This is my dream. This is what I wanted to do: put together a professional barbershop where everyone feels comfortable,” he said. “They can feel at home, at ease, relax. All genders and all ethnicities are welcome.

“I love taking somebody whose haircut just looks terrible and creating it into something that people have to double look at and say, ‘That’s amazing. Who cuts your hair?’”

In barbering, Mangham found something that clicked with him.

“I can honestly say I found myself. That’s the thing about any art I do, you got to find yourself in that field and in that art,” he said. “Find yourself being comfortable with yourself and comfortable with your talent and what you can do.

“I’m a perfectionist. I don’t let anybody out of my chair until I’m 100 percent satisfied with the quality of their haircuts. I’m big on precision. Speed comes with time, but I’m big on precision. Giving people that quality of haircut where they feel like they’re in the movies.”

Hollywood Cuts is open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at 406-H Northside Drive.

It is open Monday by appointment only.

More information or to make appointments: Call (229) 469-4165 or (229) 412-2248. Facebook: Zay Da Barber