A Day With Squeak Pro Barber Is An Exploration Of Where Art And Style Meet

When you think of traditional barber shops, you probably think of gray-haired men with endless stories, wielding only a fine-toothed comb and a pair of clippers. Classic cuts, day in and day out. Maybe a few simple fades. And that’s cool. But that’s not Squeak.

Squeak Pro Barber is next level, modern but still fun and approachable. He blurs the lines between fly hair and fine art — then shares his craft with the world through his YouTube and Instagram. He innovates and pushes boundaries. He remixes the old and reinterprets it for the now. His life is flexible, he is a man of style and comfortable in his own skin, and he’s flat-out ferocious in his commitment to his craft. When DENIZEN® from Levi’s® sent me to spend a day with Squeak, I knew one thing for sure: A day in his DENIZENS wouldn’t be boring.

As I rock up to a small Orlando storefront, a guy with shiny, black hair and tattoos covering the tops of his hands unlocks the door. This is the new era of “Members Only Barbershop” perfect for someone like Squeak, who likes to set his own schedule to fit with his active lifestyle.

“You’re in the right place,” he says, disappearing back inside. I race to catch up. The shop’s walls are made from wood pallets. Vintage chairs sit in the corners with old-school canvas aprons hung across them. This space is a mix of classic and modern, something Squeak Pro Barber says describes his style of hair cutting, too.

I sit in one of the shop’s red leather barber chairs — Migos on the TV in the background — and watch Squeak do his thing while rocking a pair of DENIZENS. He’s an artist and his flow is something akin to a dance as he has the grace and freedom to move around the barber’s chair. The finished product looks like an intricate black-and-white tattoo, shaded in all the right places. There’s depth and dimension to the cut.

Squeak takes a step back to admire his work, and a smile of approval spreads across his face. After another minute, he pulls out his phone to snap a few shots. In the modern era, your favorite barber is Insta famous, and Squeak’s 77K Instagram fans have a powerful hunger for his cuts and style.

“I try to put up two posts a day,” Squeak says. “One in the morning, and one in the evening. If I have time, I’ll post in the middle of the day too.”

Curious about his beginnings, I ask Squeak how a Rhode Island native ended up cutting hair in Orlando. He tells me that hair cutting was never a career choice; it was motivated by a desire to help his single mother.

“I wanted life to be better for my mom,” he says. “All her sisters moved out to Florida, so I wanted her to be close to them. When we finally moved, I needed a job that I could get real fast. And I ended up working in a barbershop.”

But Squeak wasn’t the type to treat his new gig like a grind. He saw the link between barbering and fine art and began to obsess over his craft and his performance. By apprenticing with pros and cutting hair on the daily, he eventually became a master.

“I started practicing with everybody, using my mirror as my reference,” he says. “Because that mirror doesn’t lie. When you’re cutting hair, your eyes get used to what you’re looking at, but the mirror shows you everything — all your imperfections.”

After a quick stop at Squeak’s go-to pizza place, we race off to spend some time digging through the crates at his favorite record shop. Turns out, not only is the man a barber, he’s also comfortable behind a turntable. It’s not a side hustle, it’s part of the whole person, and gives him a chance to show his versatility and flex his musical muscles.

Squeak’s eyes light up as we hurry into the store. We’re happy to be out of the 90-degree, muggy weather, but even more excited by the stacks and stacks of records that fill the shop. Squeak walks over to a bin in his slim-fit DENIZEN jeans and grabs a record.

“I’ve been DJing since ’96. So sixth grade,” he says. “That was my first passion–- DJing. That’s something that I loved doing, still to this day. It was my first job and how I made money.”

As we flip through records that span the ages — from Alice Coltrane and Bobby Womack to Biggie and TLC — I can see the excitement in Squeak’s face. I can tell he’s relaxed in his element. Finally, he looks over at me.

“Ya know, I don’t do drugs,” he says. “I don’t do anything. And I feel like music is my high. So whenever I want just to relax or entertain myself, I listen to music, mix, or DJ, and I feel comfortable. I feel like I can be myself.”

For Squeak, his passions come in many forms. All of which are influences on his hair cutting style. “I also draw,” he tells me at one point, almost as an aside. It’s a demanding life, but an exciting one — lived by a man who sees creativity as the centerpiece of his very existence.

“I am always trying to come up with something new,” he says, “to try to stay ahead of what people are doing. I’ve always been a man of style and I’m always trying to innovate.”

After deciding on a selection of rarities, Squeak tells me it’s time to go. His friends at the gallery are waiting for us. I have no idea what to expect when we arrive at the concrete-floored art space, adorned with modern paintings and rusted sculptures. Squeak glances over at the first sketch on the stark-white wall and tells me it’s his. He asks me if it’s okay if he puts a few last-minute touches on it while we’re there. Pretty strong move on the badass scale, right there.

As he shades and adds more color to the drawing of a massive straight razor, traditionally used for close-up shaves, he talks about hair cutting and how he approaches it the same way he approaches art.

“When I got into cutting hair I didn’t really think of it as art — until I started doing designs,” he says. “I realized, ‘This is kind of like art on paper.’ When you draw on a white piece of paper, you’re drawing with a pencil or a pen, a black marker, and you can see the contrast. And with hair, it’s vice versa. There’s more to cutting hair than doing designs. Fading is art.”

Feeling content with his work, Squeak nods at the painting and sits down. He tells me art has always been at his core. “I keep art in my everyday life. I feel like I’m in another world. I’m in the zone. I feel calmer, more at ease, I feel, free, ya know? Because I can do what I want when I draw.”

As the show winds down, Squeak tells me that he’s eager to get home to see his 7-month old son, Eric. We wrap our interview, and head to his house. Arriving on the front step, he looks re-energized — immediately squeezing his girlfriend and his son in both arms. There’s a warmth that takes over the room, and this time it’s not the Florida heat.

The southern hospitality is in full effect and soon, I’m sitting again. Squeak starts to tell me about his family, and how they didn’t really understand what a social influencer was at first. But they did understand that style and creativity had always been a part of who he was.

“I had to explain to them how social media works,” he says. “But they could see that it fit. I’ve been stylish since I was a kid. I’ve always liked to dress nice and stay a step ahead of the trends.”

Just because Squeak is blowing up your Insta, doesn’t mean that he’s barbering just for the “likes.” For him, the most rewarding part of his job as a barber and influencer is the opportunity to teach. “I love doing tutorial videos. I’ll show you step-by-step. I’m all about sharing knowledge, trying to progress, and trying to help others get better.”

Reminded of his fans, Squeak checks his social feeds, scrolling through the comments section, answering every question that comes his way. As a barber, and now influencer, Squeak’s world has changed drastically. But it’s not just his world — the field itself has evolved into something cool, modern, and fun.

“The barber game has changed so much, social media just makes it that much bigger,” he tells me. “Now there are barber battles all over, there are people being sponsored by big clipper companies, and it was never like that back in the day.”

He goes on to talk about the chance to cut celebrity hair and how influencers have become celebrities themselves. With that status comes responsibility, and the desire to lead by example. Squeak says he works his hardest to teach the barbers that it’s about more than cutting hair in pursuit of making people look incredible. What he really wants them to learn is never to doubt their abilities. He espouses this positivity on his feeds, and it’s no different in person.

“I’m not into negativity when it comes to haircuts,” he says. “When everybody’s knocking a barber’s haircut, they’re not gonna want to cut hair. They’re going to feel discouraged. But if you go in and tell them something positive about their cut, they’re gonna go, ‘Bro! No way, Squeak Pro Barber just liked my haircut.’ And it just gives them that much more confidence to keep practicing. That’s the only way you get better. You can’t just wake up and be great. It doesn’t happen like that.”

As a barber, Squeak is an evangelist in skinny jeans with a desire to jump-start progress in his industry with a focus on the intersection of art and style. This renaissance man way of thinking has allowed him to diversify his interests and develop his passions.

“I’m always trying to open doors to better myself, to advance,” he tells me. “There are so many barbers, and everyone has their own lean, and there’s more to it than just cutting hair.”

As a day in Squeak’s DENIZENS comes to a close and the streetlights come on, Squeak tells me he’s inspired by his fans just as much as they’re inspired by him, and that he’s grateful for everything he has been able to accomplish. We stand up and he gives me a hug. On my way out, I notice a room filled with records, turntables, and an easel with a sketch done in pencil — they are tools of a man who was born to create, but whose best tool of all just might be a pair of clippers.