Words by Josiah Hartline
From Nebraska to Barbering
For Isaac, barbering didn’t begin in a shop. It began earlier, in the part of him that already knew he wanted to make things.
He grew up in a small town in Nebraska called Pierce, on land his family had settled generations earlier after coming from Germany. The house he grew up in was over a hundred years old, and his life there carried the rhythm of a small rural town. At eighteen, he left for Lincoln, trying to figure out what kind of work fit who he actually was.
Before barbering, there were other versions of that search. He worked at a Kawasaki factory building subway-style trains. He tried community college for graphic design. None of it felt quite right. The thing that had really clicked first was art.
The Artist Was Already There
Long before he picked up clippers, Isaac had already found the instinct that would lead him there.
In high school, he took art almost by accident, mostly because it seemed like the easiest option among the classes he had to choose from. But once he got into it, something shifted. He did a painting one day that came out better than anything he had made before, good enough to be displayed in the school case where the stronger student work went. That moment gave shape to something he hadn’t fully named yet: he wanted to be an artist somehow.
That desire stayed with him. He painted, drew, and studied graphic design for a year before dropping out. Even then, the deeper thread wasn’t really school itself. It was the need to build a life around creativity. Barbering ended up giving that instinct a clearer route.
Finding the Path
The path into barbering came through a basement haircut and a simple conversation.
While Isaac was working at a moving company in Lincoln, he was getting his hair cut by a guy who was in barber school. That guy didn’t exactly become a formal mentor, but he did show Isaac a route. Suddenly barbering looked like more than just a trade. It looked like a way to be creative, work with people, and build a career without waiting around for someone else to hand him a chance.
Tattooing had crossed his mind too, but barbering felt more direct. Go to school. Get licensed. Start working. Once he saw that path, he chased it.
Learning the Craft
Isaac came out of barber school and stepped into a shop that expected a lot from him.
He landed in one of the stronger barbershops in Lincoln after seeing a flyer at school, and the experience was valuable in part because it was difficult. The standards were high, the criticism was real, and he had to learn how to take feedback without folding under it. That season sharpened him fast.
Not long after, his living situation changed and he moved closer to home, where he joined a shop called Royal Image. There, things opened up in a different way. He knew more people in the area, there weren’t many barbers around, and the circumstances gave him what every young barber really needs: repetitions. By the time he left Nebraska, he had built a client base of a few hundred people.
Starting Over in Greenville
For Isaac, coming to Greenville meant starting the process all over again.
He and his fiancée moved down to South Carolina in late May of 2025, and before they made the jump, he had already started reaching out to shops from a thousand miles away. When they visited, West Coast Barber Shop stood out. The fit felt right, the ideas clicked, and once he got around the rest of the team, it made even more sense.
That matters when you’re rebuilding from scratch. A new city means no real client base, no local name recognition, and none of the momentum you spent years building somewhere else. Isaac talked about how scary that felt, leaving behind a couple hundred clients and coming into Greenville mostly just knowing barbers and one college soccer connection. Still, there’s a certain energy in the way he talks about it that makes it sound less like defeat and more like challenge.
What He Brings to the Chair
If Isaac has a specialty, it’s less about one narrow cut and more about how he approaches the work.
He described it as precision for everybody. That means being detail-oriented, working across different hair types, and trying to really perfect the cut in front of him rather than boxing himself into one lane. He likes the diversity of the work, and that seems tied to one of the more interesting parts of his story. He’s worked in shops with very different cultural makeups, from predominantly Black shops earlier on to the predominantly Hispanic environment he works in now at West Coast.
He spoke about how meaningful that has been, especially coming from a small Nebraska town where he simply didn’t grow up around many of those experiences. Barbering gave him a way into other people’s worlds. Other barbers, other clients, other stories. That broader cultural side of the craft is one of the things that makes the work more interesting than people often assume.
More Than a Haircut
What came through strongest in talking to him is that he doesn’t experience barbering as a transaction.
He talked about cutting people’s hair for weddings, graduations, funerals, and divorces. Over time, the job turns into something more relational than people expect. The barber becomes somebody who hears the updates, watches the changes, and in some cases helps carry people through messier chapters of life.
That’s part of why personality matters so much. Isaac knows there are plenty of talented barbers. The difference is often whether a client feels known, listened to, and comfortable. That’s something he’s been trying to show more clearly through Instagram too, not just posting cuts but letting people see his personality, his traveling, his interests, and the kind of experience they’re actually booking into.
The Dream He’s Chasing
For Isaac, the whole thing comes back to the kind of life he wants to build.
He described the modern world almost like a video game, something chaotic and difficult but still playable if you decide what your version of the good life actually is. For him, being a barber felt like one of the coolest jobs possible. Then the dream grew again. Now it’s not just about being a barber. It’s about one day owning a shop of his own.
He also spoke openly about faith, and in his mind that’s not separate from any of this. He credited his relationship with God as part of what’s helped him keep moving toward the life he wants. The line he used was simple: “God will steer the boat, but you must row.” That feels close to the center of how he sees things. Work hard. Use what’s in you. Keep going.
Time for a Cut
You can find Isaac on Instagram @isaacxxiii and book a cut today here. I absolutely love his work and I can’t recommend it enough.
