Instead of a video game for his 16th birthday, sophomore Edward Dungey had his eyes on a set of hair clippers.
Nine years later he cuts the hair of 20 to 30 people a week, most of them black.
Everybody pretty much knows me as 'the barber
' Dungey said. For some people that was all they knew me by.Dungey, 25, has been cutting hair for almost nine years, licensed and unlicensed. After receiving clippers for his 16th birthday and first experimenting on himself, he gained the trust of his friends and has since worked in various Columbus barbershops.
With the increasingly diverse student body, students and administrators have expressed the need for a barbershop specializing in black hair.
In 2005, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis called for a barber to accommodate the black student body, which would improve the recruiting of minority students and promote diversity.
Preferring the freedom of being self-employed, Dungey started cutting hair in Athens after a short-lived job at Shively Dining Hall. Starting relatively unknown, his rate was $5 a person, but his name quickly spread about campus through word of mouth and a Facebook group named Urban Cutz, which lists 89 members and serves as a platform to advertise and display his work.
His first client was a close friend and OU football player who referred Dungey to some friends on the hockey team. Soon the team became regular clients. Now he cuts for virtually anyone, black or white, for $10 a cut.
I cut for staff janitors
administrators
Ph.D students
freshmen
sophomores
juniors
coaches
athletes
Dungey said. I cut them all.
Dungey does not limit himself to only black males and has been approached by many white students who are dissatisfied with local barbers.
Younger white guys come to me complaining about the barbers because they don't know the styles
