Two days before Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Jimmy Butler raised the bat signal. Less than 24 hours later, barber Kenny Duncan and braid specialist Florence Lawson answered the call. The Miami Heat All-Star was draped in a Denver hotel room, and Duncan and Lawson were hard at work to ensure that Butler would, per his request, “stay fresh” under the sport’s brightest lights.
Duncan co-owns Main Attraction Unisex Salon in West Philly and first linked up with Butler in 2018 after he was traded to the Sixers. Even with Butler now playing more than 1,000 miles away in South Beach, the two have stayed in touch. And Butler has repeatedly turned to Duncan and Lawson as he chases what would be his first NBA championship. As Butler evolved into Himmy—setting the franchise postseason record in scoring, leading the Heat in points, assists, steals, blocks and explicit confidence—Lawson has been the maestro behind Butler’s braids. “He welcomed me into his group as if I’ve been there for years,” Lawson said. “It’s been an amazing journey. His hair is a really major part of everything Jimmy.” This checks out: In September, Butler showed up at Media Day with dreadlocks—intended, he explained, to “make the internet mad.”
By the time Game 1 tipped on Thursday night, Duncan and Lawson were back home in Pennsylvania. They have hundreds of other clients to attend to, including reigning MVP Joel Embiid.
That’s part of the job. “There’s no telling when you’ll be called upon,” Lawson said. “I’m available 100% of the time.” She was talking about her own work, but she might as well have been speaking about her whole industry: a select group devoted to working around the clock to curate the look of your favorite professional athlete. The players aren’t the only ones capitalizing on the global platform provided by the NBA Finals. As one barber put it to GQ: “This is the moment to make some noise.”
So you want to be a hairstylist with a celebrity clientele? Someone relied upon by the best hoopers on the planet as they navigate the playoff crucible? Start with the fundamentals. Build out your fade factory: Burst, drop, skin, taper, temple, undercut. Add length variations. Mix and match. Elevate your beardwork. Your linework. Your customer service. Reps on reps on reps. Ring lights on ring lights on ring lights. Network and network and network. Grind, hustle, stack.
Specifically: Be prepared to work. When you’re exhausted. When you’re hungry. When your family needs you. When the last thing you want to do is prep another hot towel or grab the middle seat on a Spirit red eye.
This is a craft for the artistic, but an occupation for the relentless. This is a grind they write Modelo commercials about. It’s a journey that can abruptly end with a few unsteady hand movements. An industry in which the latest social media tag could release an avalanche of new clients.
To learn more about those who fuel the confidence and self-expression of athletes as they maneuver the playoff pressure cooker, GQ spoke with a dozen hairstylists with clients in and around the league, barbers and twist specialists who support starters, reserve players, coaches and pundits.
They are a rare breed. There are an estimated 12,690 barbers in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There are around 450 players in the NBA, meanwhile, and just 30 of them in the NBA finals. Many rely upon the same talent through word-of-mouth recommendations.
One barber estimated that 90% of players in the league get cut weekly, and that those numbers spike even higher in the later rounds of the playoffs, as each game carries global appeal. Nearly all of those appointments are handled in hotel rooms, in the airtight windows available to players prior to tipoff. Some are more adventurous: One barber shared a time he had to line up someone in the bed of a truck. Another got a client right in the bathroom next to a sauna—“a bathroom sauna, if you will.” Starters aren’t the only ones looking to get cleaned up: Ty Jerome of the Golden State Warriors had barber Michael Nguyen swing by when his team played Sacramento in the opening round, even though Jerome was a DNP throughout the postseason. Marcus Harvey, an Atlanta-based barber who has lined up players like LeBron James, Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson, and also serves as Nas’ personal barber on tour, spoke with GQ in the minutes after he sent Grant Hill to the NBA TV set for the pregame show. Marcus ‘Burger’ Williams relocated to Houston in large part to be the personal barber for ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, which has kept him busy in recent months.
“You know your cut is going to be seen by thousands of people,” said Brandt Day, a barber at Berk’s Barbershop in Lincoln, Nebraska. “You can’t have your client looking like a mess in front of the world. During the NBA finals, many barbers watch SportsCenter damn near half the day, every single day.”
“To have your work seen by millions of people is one of the best feelings ever, to be honest,” said Jaylen Babb-Harrison, aka JBH Fresh, a Toronto-based barber and founder of JBH Fresh Private Barbering & Grooming, who has clients including Porter, Scotty Barnes and Dalano Banton.
If there’s any pressure with an NBA client, particularly one with a truly global stage every night in the playoffs, none of those who spoke with GQ acknowledged it was felt.
“I have no pressure cutting anybody’s hair,” said K_Col3, a Milwaukee-based barber who has with clients including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Desmond Bane and reigning defensive player of the year Jaren Jackson Jr.. “It’s just another cut. I know my work so I know the outcome. It’s gonna be nice. The only cut that would have made me nervous would’ve been Kobe.”
The respect of the craft and the client doesn’t deviate regardless of circumstance, barbers told GQ, but the opportunity to have your art experienced globally is special.
“It’s like an echo; it’s everything at one time,” said Williams. “The whole world gets to see your whole life through that camera at one time. It’s an amazing feeling.”
And every barber remembers their first moment in the national spotlight.
“That’s one of the best feelings ever, to be honest,” said Babb-Harrison. “The first time I experienced it was with Gary Trent Jr. in Toronto’s home opener. I remember I watched the whole game, even the intros, and I was just locked in. He put his head down and was just kind of touching the cut and showing it off and I just remember how proud that moment was.”
Provided, of course, you can figure out where to find the game.
Just before the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, Ebo, an LA-based braider who goes by BraidsByBo, serviced a guy named Kawhi Leonard. “We had a great, flowing conversation,” she said. Leonard told her to tune in to the game. The only problem? Ebo didn’t know what channel to turn to. She frantically called her cousin. “I’m like, how do you watch sports!?” she recalled. “I ended up catching the end of it because it took a while to figure out how to download these apps.”
Don’t be mistaken: being an NBA barber is hard work, emphasis on work.
The barbers I spoke to described the specific backache that comes from leaning over the shampoo bowl after a 12-hour shift and the vision-blurring arthritis experienced when you’re mobile and don’t have an adjustable chair to position the customer in. “Sometimes the chair might be really low, and I gotta stand like halfway on it where I’m doing a Jean-Claude Van Damme split,” explained Harvey. “You’re gonna hurt.”
“That was a huge shock for me when I first started—that trauma to areas of my body,” said Ebo. “I was like, ‘Oh God, is this what it is going to feel like for the rest of my life?’”
Many who spoke with GQ said they rely upon regularly scheduled appointments with chiropractors and massage therapists to mitigate the physical tolls of the industry. On-a-dime scheduling further compounds matters.
But anyone who’s had an interminable haircut knows that a good barber isn’t just good at cutting hair.
“This really is their time to be be in a space and not need to worry about what they deal with 24/7,” said Vince Garcia, aka Vince the Barber, who owns Grey Matter and has appeared on HBO’s The Shop. “It’s critical to read the room, the vibe.”
Nearly all who spoke with GQ noted that after the first appointment, they rarely if ever chop it up with the players about ball.
“That’s the last thing they want to talk about,” said Williams. “They want to talk about life, you know? Ball stresses them out. Take that off them.”
Many clients are quick to reach out if the work unlocks something in their game.
For example, Steph Curry signed a pair of shoes for JayR Mallari, owner of Legacy Barber Studio, with “MVP cuts from the MVB #MostValuableBarber” after Mallari served as his regular barber during the Warriors’ record 73-win regular season in 2015-16. Anthony Davis thanked Ebo last month for the 4-braid she threw down at the behest of his teammates—“I need this to play well,” he told her. Devin Booker, the NBA’s fade king, had a 50-piece shortly after one of his linkups with Garcia. “Sometimes a cut gets you back in the groove,” Garcia said with the air of someone who routinely helps clients reestablish a rhythm. “Look good, feel good, play good.”
Ask hairstylists which cut will be remembered as the thumbnail of the 2023 finals and you’ll hear a few contenders: Butler, Porter Jr., Caleb Martin, Tyler Herro. “We’re all watching the NBA finals,” said Day. “We always talk about the fresh cuts, what cuts we think they should have. We talk a lot about the bad cuts too!”
The big takeaway for many is that the braid-aissance has reached primetime: Half of the starters in Game 1 rocked braids.
“I'm excited because more clients are up for grabs,” Ebo said. “I'm ready to grow. I'm definitely excited about that.”
Those who spoke with GQ saw the resurgence as a combination of factors: Style and the pandemic.
“Braids give you a little extra swag,” said Babb-Harrison. “And it’s a nice networking ecosystem between the braiders and barbers. We both want to make it look as good as possible and it takes both of us to make it work.”
“Shoot, a lot of people were afraid to get their hair cut,” added Williams. “A lot of barbers were afraid too. Everyone grew their hair out, it seemed. And some saw it as a statement of strength and power. I think it’s also a sign of the times that we live in that allow people to better express themselves and overall we’re more accepting of different hairstyles now.”
Ebo noted that in some cases, she represents the first woman who has helped a male client out with his hair. “We’re all on a growth journey together,” she said. “It’s a special kind of relationship.”
But the axis of the NBA world currently tilts around a 7-foot Serbian with a skillset never seen before in the game’s history—and a hairstyle described by industry pros as a “2-guard to the dome” or “something he did by himself at home in the dark.”
Clever Mayorga, who has lined up players in the Nuggets locker room before, said Nikola Jokic’s cut looks slightly better up close. Still, he said: “The question we’re all asking is: Who cuts Jok’?” And hairstylists aren’t short on ideas for how it could be elevated.
“I think the high-ball fade he has suits him,” said Garcia. “I don’t know if I’d give him a line up in the front… but it’s worth a shot.”
Harvey has other ideas. “We’re going to go with a drop fade instead of the motha-Slovenian fade,” said Harvey. “Then I’d give Joker that Drake part—you know, the one with the heart? Get it?”
