Ever since he was a rising sophomore, senior Ashton Pham-Davis has pursued his passion: cutting hair.
Since the summer of his sophomore year, Pham-Davis has been acting as a barber for his friends. In the years since, he has developed it into a profitable business cutting hair for numerous HPISD students.
Pham-Davis originally started cutting hair for free as he learned how to cut hair and shape different hairstyles. As his skills progressed, Pham-Davis started charging for his appointment. News of his hair-cutting business started to spread throughout his grade, attracting numerous interested customers and increasing his profit. The money from these appointments has allowed him to be more self-sufficient.
“People know me from cutting their hair, and I’ve made a lot of friends,” Pham-Davis said, “Also then a benefit definitely is the money, I go out and I pay for my own food with my friends and I used to have to hold back a bit, but now I don’t.”
With his business, Pham-Davis also learned how to compete with commercial hair salons, offering higher quality and lower prices.
“One thing I learned a lot about is competitive pricing,” Pham-Davis said, “my competition here was that a lot of my friends that were getting their haircuts messed up were going to commercial salons where their haircuts were more than 25 bucks.”
Because of this, Pham-Davis set his price at $20, allowing him to get more customers.
Juggling his business, varsity football, and band, Pham-Davis must maintain a strictly kept schedule to deliver haircuts to all his clients.
“I set certain days when I could just strictly cut hair where I could knock out like 12 hair cuts, or else sometimes I could fit them in just like anywhere during break before I shower,” Pham-Davis says, “Like after football practice and between school and the football games, I give fades to the Scotsmen.”
Ashton’s commitment to his schedule stands out to those around him, and friends and often point out his dedication and commitment to his work.
“Originally, I thought of Ashton as a shy character, but now he’s someone that the whole grade knows and loves, you know, just based on his personality and his work,” senior Ryder Greene said.
Throughout his time as an entrepreneur, Ashton has dedicated himself to working on his skills in order to become a better barber.
“Especially in his beginning days, he was studying relentlessly out of his craft, hitting the books, anything like that he was willing to get better,” Greene said. “He understood that he wasn’t the best when he started.”
Though his business greatly enhanced his entrepreneur-like qualities, Ashton Pham-Davis had shown these characteristics from a very young age.
“Other activities that he has to attend or the other jobs he does like he’s babysit also for the family for eight years,” mother Julie Pham-Davis said. “And so that was initially his first business,”
Whilst managing his various extracurriculars and the growth of his business, it was noted by his family that he started to show extreme responsibility and capability.
“When he started cutting hair, I just saw such growth in his independence and his initiative to work things out to make other people and his customers happy,“ Julie Pham-Davis said.
