The Barber | Nikolay Dimov
It is a warm Friday afternoon at the beginning of April. The time is 4 p.m. and the end of the working week is right around the corner. But not for Nikolay Dimov — a 28-year-old men-style hairdresser who works in his own barber shop in Kyustendil, Bulgaria.
The next client arrives. Nikolay rolls up his sleeves, puts on his work apron, and sets to work. He carefully puts a hygienic neck bandage and a protective clothing around the man’s shoulders. After explaining what hairstyle he wants, Nikolay takes the razor and gently starts shaving his hair. While working, he begins talking about his life and how he became a barber.
“It all started when I was a child. My grandfather is a barber — he has a van in our village and he does the haircuts of the pensioners. During one of the summer vacations, I saw that the children in the village had grown a lot of hair. I told them to come to the van one by one so that I can give them a haircut. Thus, barbering became a hobby of mine.”
But before becoming a professional barber, Nikolay went through many other jobs — a singer in the town pubs, a chef in a 4-star hotel in England, a waiter, and even a hotel manager.
“For 5 years, I worked in Strimon Garden Medical Spa Hotel in Kyustendil, as I first started as a waiter. Over time, I showed my skills and I became a manager. After a while, I opened my own barber shop. There was a lot of work and I couldn’t manage working in both places. So, I decided it was better to work for myself, rather than for someone else.”
Nikolay explains that the main reason why he decided to become a modern professional barber is that there weren’t such in the area. “I watched some men's hairstyles on the internet because I wanted to get a haircut. However, none of the barbers in the town came close to making such visions, as they only make old-fashioned hairstyles. Then I said to myself — why don’t I try?”
And so, for 3 years now, Nikolay has been successfully running his own barber shop. Not only that, but he has been attending hair fashion competitions. In October 2020, he won first place for a Man’s Fashion Haircut at the XXIII International Hair and Beauty Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria.
“There were competitors from all over the globe, who are great professionals. Of 36 people, I got the maximum points and I won first place. But for me, work will always be more important than the win,” he shares.
In order to be a prosperous hairdresser, Nikolay explains that you need much more than just haircutting skills — you need to have the ability to communicate and connect with people.
“I’m also a bit of a psychologist. When one of my clients is sad or just not in the mood, I always try to lift the spirits and have fun together. Not only that but doing the hairstyles themselves is a kind of treatment because when you make someone look beautiful, they feel happy with how they look.”
He shares that this is the biggest satisfaction he gets from being a barber. “It feels really good when the client smiles and says `wow` to the end result. That’s how I know I did my job right.”
For the future, Nikolay says that he will work until he can and he hopes that he will be “even better and even more successful.”
He says, “Never stop believing. There is nothing impossible and there are no unfulfilled goals. When you believe, anything can happen.”
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Kristina Dimitrova is double-majoring in Journalism and Business Administration at the American University in Bulgaria. She learned a lot of interesting facts about her interviewee’s job.
