LAFAYETTE PARISH — For Jason Walker, his career began with a realization : “I realized something at a very young age that when a man walks into a building, we kinda look at a person to see who it is, then we look down at their shoes and then we look up at their haircut.”
That simple observation became his foundation and a calling. Walker grew up in Grand Coteau without a barber nearby, so he taught himself. By 14, he was cutting his own hair—and his friends’. “Most of my time growing up I was playing basketball so that was my focus, you know I was a straight A student and I just, basketball was everything to me,” Walker said.
But when he wasn’t on the court, he was sharpening his skills behind the clippers. “If you let me tell it, I never did a bad haircut when I was self-taught,” he joked. “But I’m sure I messed up a few of my buddies—they probably just didn’t tell me.”
Still, the path to barbering wasn’t straightforward. Walker originally studied mechanical engineering before realizing it wasn’t his passion. “I felt like I was wasting time because it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” he said. Taking that leap into barber school wasn’t easy, but it set the foundation for everything that followed.
After years of opening and owning several barbershops, Walker recently launched his own barber academy—a space designed not only to teach technique but to mentor. “I can honestly say a lot of what I do to help people is because I wished I would’ve had someone that would've done it for me,” Walker said.
That desire to make a difference also led him to join the 100 Greater Black Men of Lafayette, where he mentors young men and shares the lessons that shaped him. “I’ve always tried to talk to young men while they’re in the chair—even kids,” Walker said. “When they ask me a question, I answer them with ‘sir’ to try and show them respect.”
For Walker, success isn’t measured in the number of clients or classrooms—but in the confidence he helps build. “Seeing something from start to finish, how you change people and how they walk in and they leave out smiling, man, it’s a good feeling,” he said.
