From a self-taught kid in the Bronx to the man they call the Godfather of Barbering.
Long before celebrity clients, sold-out stages, and international education tours, there was a young barber in the Bronx determined to become the best.
It began at twelve, with a self-cut. By high school Curtis was the neighborhood barber — people stopping him on the street, hats in hand, before cell phones existed — all while starring as an all-city running back at John F. Kennedy. When it came time for college, he realized his real love was the craft. His clientele grew faster than any scholarship could, and he never looked back.
His first shop was Secret Images, an upscale Harlem salon, where he sat beside the legendary Leroy — one of the most detailed barbers to ever hold a pair of clippers — and learned that there are levels to this game. He blended that detail with his own style, then earned the back chair at Marble Hill Unisex under his mentor, Roosevelt "Rosey" Spivey, the man he'd watched cut hair since he was a kid.
When his book grew too big for one chair, he opened Eboneese Unisex BX with DJ Kid Capri — booked weeks out, three locations, and the first shop to headline the Apollo Theatre.
In 1997, a call from Bad Boy Records brought him in to cut an artist for P. Diddy. Diddy was so impressed he asked Curtis to be his barber — a relationship that lasted from 1997 to 2018. Usher followed in 1999. Working at that level meant creating images, not just haircuts — and Curtis became known for the looks that started trends: the Temple Taper (1992), the Hawkie (2003), and the South of France (2012), all still cut in shops around the world today.
In 2001 he founded Xotics, a product line free of harsh chemicals, and built Team Xotics to carry it across the country. He created the Barbers Round Table — twelve events over roughly eight years that introduced a generation of barbers to one another — and launched the Hair Battle Tour and Step Your Game Up: 82 events across 9 years, city to city, teaching barbers how to build their careers, their shops, and career-saving skills.
People often call him the Godfather of Barbering. He takes it as the highest compliment there is — because it means they believe he helped move the culture forward. Barbers-for-barbers, one big conversation now happening around the world.
Curtis's greatest test didn't come in the chair. A four-time cancer survivor, he has faced the fight — and won — not once, but four times. Those battles reshaped what he values most and taught him a truth he now lives by: looking sharp on the outside means nothing without real health on the inside.
That conviction became his next mission. Curtis is bringing the same discipline and standard-setting that made his name in barbering to a new wellness and nutrition line — clean, purposeful products built to help people take control of their health the way he had to take control of his. Same philosophy, bigger purpose: helping people live longer, stronger, and better.