TOLEDO, Ohio — James Chestnutt, better known as Kutt'em Cheen, is currently a student at Topp Of The Line Barber College. He's 27 years old and becoming a barber has always been on his mind.
"I've always been thinking about being a barber," Chestnutt said. "My dad's a barber, my uncle's a barber, so it's always been in my blood."
He said he came to T.O.L. Barber College in south Toledo with the hopes of one day opening up his own barber shop business.
"I've always had a desire for entrepreneurship, and when I found out a Black man was doing it it made it easier for me to jump into that water," Chestnutt said.
He's talking about Antwaun Turner, who is the owner of the college by the intersection of Glendale Avenue and South Byrne Road.
WTOL 11 last spoke with Turner in April of 2023 when the barbershop was only a month old with about five students. About a year later, he has 25 students.
"I want to teach them how to cut hair, teach them how to acquire business savvy skills, to sit there and succeed through any situation," Turner said.
Topp Of The Line didn't happen overnight. During his summers as a kid, Turner would spend time at his dad's barbershop in Atlanta. He said he wanted to learn how to cut hair just to buy a collection of shoes.
"It grew into me getting the money and me having the understanding that I don't even want the shoes anymore, let me just keep getting this (money)," Turner said. "That felt better than the shoes on my feet."
That drive is something he wants to pass along to his students.
"Lead by example and show them the fruits of my labor," Turner said. "Give them the knowledge that they might be interested in."
Turner wants to give knowledge to people like Chestnutt, who plans to open a mobile barbershop when he graduates in about a year.
"We're going to be mobile with it," Chestnutt said. "We're going to be on wheels, we come into communities, stuff like that."
Since it takes about 14 months to complete the program, Turner hasn't had his first graduation yet. But in a couple of months, he will.
"It's going to be a big thing to sit there and look at the first person to be able to change his life off of something that I offered," Turner said.
For those interested in joining the waitlist to be a student at T.O.L. Barber College, click here.
After joining the waitlist, Turner said it will take at least three months for a student to start the program.
Turner also owns a construction business named T.O.L. Projects.