IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Every person who sits in Junior Velasquez's barber chair has a story, and so does the person behind it.
The 31-year-old owner of Limitless Barbershop in Immokalee turned childhood embarrassment over bad haircuts into a thriving business and a mission to give back to his community.
Looking back at yearbook pictures can bring mixed feelings. For Velasquez, those memories are filled with questionable haircuts by his mom that left him feeling self-conscious.
"It was not a funny like, it wasn't like a cute picture, but I was like, you know, I'll laugh about it in the beginning, it bothered me because it was like, it was a bad haircut," Velasquez said.
At 17 years old, he vowed to be in control of his own head of hair. So he decided to learn the craft of the cut.
Click here to see Immokalee Community Correspondent Victoria Quevedo speak with Junior Velasquez.
"It just started as just wanting to learn how to cut hair, to really in reality, to save money," Velasquez said.
Velasquez started small, carrying a chair from neighbor to neighbor with an extension cord and a milk bucket for his tools. Now he owns his own barbershop, and the name reflects his philosophy.
"Limitless is pretty much in the name you know, be limitless. Don't allow your struggles, the you know, the difficulties that you endure in life, to stop you from anything," Velasquez said.
He doesn't want anyone else to be limited either. Velasquez remembers receiving a $200 scholarship that helped him buy his first professional clippers. So this past May, he awarded his first scholarship to a graduate pursuing his same passion.
"My mission, giving back. I mean, making a difference, allowing planting those positive seeds into kids like myself when I was a kid... a haircut changes everything. You know it could be having a bad day. You have an amazing experience, especially a good haircut, changes your whole world," Velasquez said.
Despite people who doubted him, Velasquez never gave up. His message to young people in Immokalee is simple.
"If you dream it and you really want it, you push yourself," Velasquez said.
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