What started as a teetering kitchen stool in the corner of his drafty garage has transformed into a full-blown barbering chair, filled with hundreds of clients awaiting to be cut by Davon, a Stafford High School sophomore who is cutting with a mastery far beyond his years.

Since the take-off of Shelton’s business in November, 2022, he has racked up over 700 followers on instagram and gained a clientele that keeps his clippers buzzing from 3:30pm-7pm nearly every evening after school. Averaging about 4 clients a school day, Davon triples that number on his busiest weekends.

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Before Shelton had even imagined himself barbering, let alone running his own business, he found himself magnetized to barbering transformation clips on Youtube. “I just always found it so satisfying that a person can come in looking crazy and go out looking like a different person and they be happy,” Shelton explains. The videos sparked an idea; “If I can cut my own hair, we can all be fresh when we go out,” Shelton remembers thinking. 

“My dad had these old, messed up clippers,” Shelton recalls. Knowing that no one would trust a 14-year-old kid with his dad’s thrown aside clippers, the younger Shelton cut the sides of his head, hidden under dreadlocks he had at the time. “I balded the sides,” Shelton snickers. Unbothered by his subpar attempt at cutting his own hair, he found himself in front of his bathroom mirror every three days, confident that his skills would improve with every fade.

Having gained more confidence with the clippers, Shelton turned to his friends to practice on. The bathroom of Stafford High School became a makeshift barber shop, huddles of prospective clients keenly observing the aspiring barber snip away. Unaware of the Christmas lists filled with barbering supplies and equipment or the hours spent perfecting his craft, unassuming peers watched as the young entrepreneur made his aspirations reality.

One of Shelton’s earliest supporters, Nehemiah White, has stood by him as he’s built a business from the ground up. “I seen [barbering] was what he wanted to do, so I just wanted to help him do that the best way possible,” White explains. White has offered unwavering loyalty to Shelton, all of his faith earning him a friend who doubles as a part-time barber. “He had his little errors in the beginning but I stayed down because I knew it was a process,” says White. “But now he get me right every time.“

After receiving increasingly positive feedback from friends and classmates, Shelton gained the courage to dive directly into his dreams. With the help of self-promoting on Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, and even going as far as to write his social media handle on random whiteboards around his school, Shelton has been able to sustain a healthy wage that keeps his pockets happy and his clients leaving happier. Having started with free test-cuts on close friends, expanding to $5 cuts to $10 cuts, he has now grown into a modest price of $25 dollars for a standard, men’s haircut. 

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Behind-the-scenes, Shelton’s mother, Jessica Shelton, has proudly watched her son grow a business from nothing, assisting his journey every step of the way. Shelton clocked into their garage at 6:30 in the morning to 8 o’clock at night during his winter break, cutting at least 12 clients on what was most students’ days in bed, and Mrs. Shelton couldn’t have a reaction any less than exuberant. 

“If anybody knows Davon, when he gets his mind into something, he jumps head first,” Mrs. Shelton says fondly. “He’s just starting, so I can only imagine where he’s gonna be two years from now, five years from now.

Shelton’s parents aren’t the only adults in his life eager to offer guidance. Shelton has discovered newfound wisdom and encouragement in Kristy Craddock, CTE teacher at Stafford High School. During lunch, Mrs. C’s room is overflowing with chattering teenagers, making her classroom the escaped for Stafford students from their mind-numbing school day. “We all eat lunch together and we’ll watch him cut hair,” says Craddock. “He actually made me subscribe to his channel so every time I pull up YouTube I get to see if he posts a new video and he’ll ask me to watch it.” 

With her background knowledge of marketing and business management, Craddock aids Shelton in his pursuit to grow his name. “I would just tell him to go the more traditional route with getting a business license [and] having insurance,” Craddock implores. Despite her recommendations to improve Shelton’s marketing tactics, she commends him for his steady improvement and determination to go the extra mile. “It’s cool to see his very first cut compared to his cuts now,” Craddock says. “With time and maturity, he’ll get better.”

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In hopes of one day traveling with celebrities as a personal barber, Shelton is working towards upgrading both his current skill set and his garage-based barber shop. Shelton plans to take high-school-level barbering courses, preparing him for what will later on be vocational barbering school. Shelton and his family are also working on relocating the young barber to a fully-equipped barbering shed in his backyard, which will be an oasis compared to the well-loved corner of his garage.

Shelton’s story has inspired those closest to him, even if they never hear the end of his next plans to improve his business. “He literally sits in class watching YouTube videos about cutting hair,” sighs Donovan Amoah, Shelton’s childhood friend and first ever client. “That’s all he talks about.” Willing to listen to all of Shelton’s ideas and passionate spiels, Amoah admires his friend’s undaunted attitude. “He’s always tryna get better, he’s always learning.”

It’s no secret Shelton won’t stop grinding until he reaches his goals and beyond, his relentless persona carrying him half the way. Shelton’s entrepreneurial perseverance and passion has easily made him one of the most sought-after barbers in the Fredericksburg area.