In his hands, the straight razor is a Stradivarius, the clippers a Chris Craft ski boat, the scissors a surgeon’s scalpel.
To watch choochcutz, or Kendrick Mora on his license, is to watch a master at work. He is DaVinci. Kobe. Amadeus. A prodigy who has only been cutting hair for five years, but he is already styling the likes of the Detroit Pistons.
No detail goes unnoticed. No hair too small to be left uncut. Every line is to be freehanded as if by a laser pointer.
" For a beard, it’s $75, and for a haircut alone it’s $60. On the weekends it’s $100, so my price during the week is not the same as the weekend because it is just higher demand,” says Mora.
Charles has been coming to this chair for years. He drives 40 miles one way just to get his hair cut.
“Probably one of the best barbers around,” says Charles. “I’m promising you that. If you get a cut, you’ll never go anywhere else.”
The shop is cool and inviting and not without humor. You would think if several of your regulars were Detroit Pistons, there would be more hype on the walls but Kendrick the Barber is well…humble. And maybe that’s why his celebrity clients trust him not only with their fades but their privacy. Clients like Cade Cunningham are represented by just some small basketball cards tacked up by the dish of mints.
Did I mention choochcutz has an actual barber pole rotating inside the shop? Nothing about this place is pretentious. I mean, his caricature is next to his chair.
“My background, I’m Colombian,” explains Mora. “And ‘cucho’ is slang for ‘old man.’ So I was overdue as a baby so I was really wrinkly, and my older sister- I’m the youngest of four - and my older sister said I looked like a little cucho, and I just stuck with it.”
Later on his friend shortened up the saying and just called him “chooch,” so he made the name into his handle, choochcutz.
Yours truly got a chance to sit in the chair and get crispy - barber talk for having nice crisp lines.
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