More than a Shape Up: Anointed Cutz Barber Shop
For over ten years, she worked in call centers interacting with strangers all over the country. But after deciding she needed a change in life, Shauna Greene found her eyes drawn to a new line: the hair line that is.
“I used to walk around and I would look at different individual's hairlines, and I would just say, ‘I can do that, I can do that, I can do that,’” Shauna remembers with a grin. “So I got with the barber, and I went and got the same clippers that this barber had and I would just go up to people that I knew from church or anything and I just asked them, ‘Hey, can I shape you up?’”
By 2011, Shauna decided to take her hobby to the next level and go to barber school. After graduating in 2013 and working in several other local shops, she opened her own shop, Anointed Cutz in 2018.
Shauna sees her work as a calling to love and serve her customers and her community. Her shop name came to her during barber school when she used the hashtag, #anointedcuts when sharing photos of her work. She felt then that her “God-given gift,” needed to be used to serve her community. Her shop is the only woman-owned barber shop in High Point and she sees her work in the community as a ministry.
“I am able to meet people where they are,” Shauna says humbly. “I have a wide variety of clientele so being able to be by myself and still show them the love of God through my clippers is what means the world to me.”
She decided to use the word “anointed” in her business name to indicate that her business was a place customers could find non-judgmental, loving support describing her shop as “a place of peace,” a welcome haven for community members who need to rest and a place of growth for young professionals.
For Shauna, she’ll cut the hair of whoever steps into her shop – whatever their needs, whatever their hair type, whatever their requests. Because as she says, “a real barber can cut anything that walks through the door, and I am a real barber.”
Hers is a six-chair shop with a full schedule of customers for every barber working with her. One of her favorite parts of her business practice is welcoming new barbers, fresh out of barber school. They learn by doing and Shauna, “shows them the ropes before they get into bad habits.” Her employees build a customer base and they learn lessons like how to be consistent with customers so that customers will be consistent in return.
Ultimately, Shauna wants her barbers to understand the importance of loyalty and trust between barber and client. She is clear with her students that part of being consistent is showing up on time and always going the extra mile to meet a customer's needs.
“People will say stuff in the chair that they would not say to anybody else,” Shauna notes, and she reminds her team of barbers to offer the same level of vulnerability and honor for those clients moments in return.
Tenacious and strong, Shauna remembers being told more than once, “You don’t belong in this profession.” Yet she continues to show up, clippers in hand, with boldness and creativity. She has attracted other strong female barbers who now work in her shop.
“We are fun people who enjoy being around each other,” Shauna says of her staff, “and we want customers to feel that.” Not only does Shauna listen without judgment to her customers when they come to her shop, she sometimes acts as a counselor stand-in and an advocate for them outside of its walls. Shauna is a collector of the stories of her customers.
“That’s what we connect with as humans is other people’s stories,” she says. It’s surprises no one who knows Shauna to see her in a school pick-up line for one of her customers. Extra wisdom, discipline, prayers, and encouragement are only a text or call away between Shauna and her customers.
And Shauna remembers the details. She laughs and says, “I can’t go nowhere without people knowing who I am.” She especially loves giving children and individuals with disabilities a safe environment to have a great barber experience. “I got you:” that’s the core of what she wants her customers to know. Shauna is quite literally there to the end for many of her customers.
“I am loyal to the end,” she shares, “and I don’t charge for the final cut.” She will take her scissors and blade on the road to the funeral home to give that final cut to her longtime customers who have passed on.
Every year she hosts, “Christmas in the Barbershop” where she surprises a family in need with gifts and invites customers in to share a good meal together with the family. Shauna says this is not just about the presents, but it’s about “bringing the community together.” Last year, she supported a newly single father with gifts for him and his two children as well as a warm, catered meal for all who attended the event.
Students or “my kids” as Shauna refers to them, can also come to her shop for after-school tutoring in a program she calls, “Guide.” Between the beard trims and edges touch ups, students are paired with volunteers: college students and other educators who come to the shop and serve after school. The message to the students is clear: “We’re here… We love what we do and we’re passionate about it.” And that means most importantly: the people who sit in the barber chairs. And that’s a lesson she learned firsthand from Ed Hooker.
Shauna recently lost a beloved mentor and role model, her barber instructor, Ed Hooker. He was there when she opened her own shop and for other big moments in her life, taking her in like she was his own daughter. She still gets emotional talk about Ed, the man who she says: “was my heart.” His influence on her work, her business, and her life is why she now wears his picture on a chain close to her heart, giving him thanks for all that he taught her and keeping him nearby as she continues his legacy. She learned many important practical business lessons from him, yes, but much more importantly she learned lessons about how to be a good human and how to impact the lives of your customers. Shauna is clear, “my clippers don’t discriminate, so I don’t discriminate… I am here in High Point to stay.”
“I am able to meet people where they are. I have a wide variety of clientele so being able to be by myself and still show them the love of God through my clippers is what means the world to me.”
Shauna Greene, owner of Anointed Cutz Barber Shop
Discover our High Points,
The HPD Team
Photography by Brandon Lee Media
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