October 29, 2016

Meet Atlanta and Old Fourth Ward Hairstylist: Travis Dowdy

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Dowdy.

Travis, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Well, I didn’t start out wanting to be a hair stylist at all. I didn’t know what to do after high school, so I got a few odd jobs here and there. I finally got a decent job as a contractor, a roofing job, it was hard work, long hours and dirty, but I was about 21 at the time and young enough to handle it. One weekend the owner sent me on a job out of town to Tennessee. What was different about this job is that it would be my first time spending day and night with the guys for two days. I was excited, and it was my out-of-town job with a company. The first day was great. After work, we checked into the hotel and later met up to play poker. This was my first time playing, and I think they cheated, now that I think about it. However, here is where my life took a 180° change. They wanted to go get drugs. I didn’t do drugs, but I rode around with them until they found what they were looking for. The next morning, we went back to the job site and worked a full productive day. I was sitting on top of a cooler on the roof and looking at the guys on the other side laughing and talking as the sun went down. At that moment something surreal happened, it hit me out of nowhere and I said to myself, “Travis that’s you over there in the next five years.” That was the longest ride home ever. That is not what I wanted for my life. So what did I want? I was still unsure, but determined to find out.

I returned to Atlanta and I asked myself, “What do you know how to do?” Since I was known as the neighborhood barber back in high school, my answer was, “Cut hair!”

When I was 14 years old, my sister had just gotten her driver’s license, this is important because she had a boyfriend that she was supposedly crazy about. This would be a life-changing experience as well, unknowing to me at the time. Her boyfriend was a barber. So, one day our mother let my sister drive my brother and I to the barber shop to get our regular two-week haircut. She decides to take us to her boyfriend, not because he was that good, in fact, he wasn’t good at all. We really didn’t know the difference between a professional and a non-professional, but we quickly found out once we returned home and mom saw our heads. She immediately looked at our haircut and said, “I’m about to call the shop. Did y’all regular barber cut y’all today?” We lied and said, “Yes.” This moment was actually my first life defining moment. Mom quickly said, “I’m taking you and your little brother back up there.” I jumped up and said, “I will fix it if you buy my some chippers. I have watched Mr. J cut our hair for years. I can do it!” I never knew that moment would change my life. Mom got the clippers and I started to cut my brother and I hair from that moment. I didn’t do very well in the beginning, but I think mom overlooked that because she was saving money. Then I started cutting my close friends’ hair in high school. I still never thought about it as a career until that question I asked myself after the longest ride ever from Tennessee to Atlanta after experiencing this outer body, “ah-ha” moment on the top of that roof.

After I answered, “I know how to cut hair”, I looked into barber schools only to find out that they were too expensive for me on my roofing salary and more than likely I will have to get a new job because roofing hours were completely unpredictable. So I looked at a state funded tech school, Atlanta Area Technical College. They had a barbering class but there was one slight problem. The program was actually Cosmetology. So, are you telling me I have to do ladies’ hair? Yes! The Cosmetology program was a four quarter program and Barbering was the fifth quarter which was optional. While I knew nothing about women’s hair, after all this, now what I’m I going to do? After I thought about it for an entire six months, I decided that they were not going to change the rules for me, so Cosmetology it is. I just wanted to get to the fifth quarter, get my license, and hopefully open up a small barbershop and live my life.

I left my roofing job, got a new job checking luggage in the airport, and off to cosmetology school I went. I struggled through the first quarter, but I was able to get through it with help from the ladies in my class, and my girlfriend, at the time, helped me roll my doll head at night. Then before you know it, we were in the third quarter and we picked up a pair of shears. At the moment, all of those experiences that I didn’t realize were shaping my life all came together. It was as if a light came on and I had the biggest “ah-ha” moment of my life. I started cutting and it was like using a pair of clippers. They fit my hand like a glove, and I quickly became one of the top students, winning every competition. In cosmetology school, that was when a great cut is the foundation of any hair style. As we entered the fourth and final required quarter of the Cosmetology program, we started doing real models and I was appointed a shampoo assistant.

Has it been a smooth road?
How do I answer that? There has been so much to learn and so many mistakes made, but struggle is more like character building. Things that make you better…a better person, businessman, communicator, and better listener.

It has been over 23 years now as a hair stylist, and over 17 of business ownership. I will take the ups and downs of this path, hands down, over the path I could or should have taken. Without a doubt, the clippers saved my life. With that said, my struggles are also my blessings.

What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
My proudest moment was when my first Travis Dowdy Hair Care product was delivered to my home. My sons and I started, in our garage, filling product bottles and labeling for the first time.

Every story has ups and downs. What were some of the downs others might not be aware of?
The struggles have been trying to understand everything it takes to effectively run a business and balancing all the moving pieces.

What’s your outlook for the industry in our city?
Atlanta is the hair capital of the world. There is no other place that will kick start your career and give you the tools and talent to go anywhere in the world.

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