Community Highlights: Meet Dejuan Conley of Anointed Handz Barbershop

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dejuan Conley

Hi DeJuan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
As a young kid around 8 or 9 I started working in the barbershop. My grandfather Fred Conley was a barber and co-owned Paul’s Barbershop off of Lafayette St. As a young boy I would clean up the shop and also dust off the customers shirts once they got up out of the barber chair. While working doing that job I was very observant and visually learned the concept of cutting hair. Around the age of 13, I bought my 1st pair of clippers and cut my 1st two heads due to my mother having a friend who had two sons and they were not as well off as I was, and from this I started my journey as a barber. Following friends seeing me do this for them in the breeze way of our apartment complex I started having a line of clients, and earning $3 a haircut. I used to go back and forth cutting from Turtle Creek behind Kroger on Nolensville Rd and Old Hickory to Chetham Homes off of Rosa Park where my great grandmother lived cutting friends and family. In 1994 my mother purchased our 1st home on Towne Village Dr in Priest Lake area, and she allowed me to put a makeshift barbershop in the garage and at that point I began charging $7. We’ll after graduation in October 1995 my little sister was killed at Mega Market grocery store in Antioch. So with the aid of the stat of Tennessee, I enrolled at Mid State Barber College on Jefferson St. under the leadership of the Oldham/Luster family. I completed my course, received my license, while also cutting hair on the campus of Tennessee State University in 1997. Following passing State board, I started cutting hair in my the shop with my grandfather. I worked with him from 1997-99 and then the opportunity presented itself to move on and run Billy’s Barbershop in West Nashville behind Tennessee State University on Indiana Ave. In 1997 I became a father of my 1st child and gained custody of my daughter in 1999/2000. I stayed there until 2006 in which I opened Anointed Handz Barbershop at 1506 Church St in downtown Nashville. In 2011 I returned to college earning my Bachelors of Science from Middle Tennessee State University while also running my business and the birth of my son in March 2010. Anointed Handz Barbershop is not only a barbershop it’s a family environment and resource center where we service the needs of many from police to politicians to the common man. After the covid pandemic our Church St location was labeled condemned and we relocated to our Chester Ave location where we’ve been since 2021. I’ve been blessed to partner with schools in the East Nashville area cutting hair reading and mentoring young kids representing the barbershop as well as with my fraternity The Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated- Pi Gamma Gamma chapter. I also co-host the Tennessee Trade show along side of barber Keith Anderson under the leadership of Major League Barber out of Philadelphia, PA in which barbers come from all around the country to participate in competitions as well as continued professional education for our field.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The struggles have been few but covid was a setback. It caused my location to close, and I had to scrounge and find a new spot but over all I’ve been very blessed. Post covid it’s been a challenge hiring a full staff as I’ve done more with apprenticeships.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
For our industry, we’re having ro become community advocates. I recently added Mental health advocate and HIV/Mens sexual health certification to my resume. I joined The Confess Project of America (mental health) as well as Cutting the Stigma (HIV/Men’s Sexual Health). I also go into Warner Elementary, Jere Baxter Middle, Amqui Elementary, Issac Litton Middle, Maplewood HS helping and mentoring young men in various areas.

Pricing:

• Booking and pricing can be found https://booksy.info/AnointedHandzBarbershop

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/AnointedHandzBarbershop
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/AnointedHandzBarbershop
• Other: http://booksy.info/AnointedHandzBarbershop