By: Isaiah S. Showell, Follow South Jersey Multimedia Journalist/’What’s Good’ Host
MAYS LANDING, NJ – Chris Radford is a barber who works for Truth Be Told in Mays Landing, and the irony is, though barbers are encouraged to keep hairlines straight, Radford’s life has taken twists and turns that shaped him up into the man he is today.
At the age of 15, Radford was in Jamesburg Juvenile Detention Center for fighting and accidentally hitting his school principal who tried to break up the fight. “Kids are angry,” said Radford. “If you can get your kid to talk you can fix him and you can help him.”
Radford was no stranger to aggression or fighting and one incident with his stepfather and brother taught him a lesson about how to be wise with the punches you throw when his brother hits him.
“He didn’t knock me out but he knocked the fight out of me,” said Radford. “I learned that day you can throw a thousand punches but only one counts.”
Radford looked up to mostly the women in his life, especially his grandmother; he calls her the patriarch of the family because the principles she placed in his family are still honored today.
Radford ended up serving time in Southwood State Prison and while there he took to cosmetology and the head program director encouraged him to cut hair in the main barbershop there honing his skills to be ready to cut hair professionally once released.
“It’s not just a haircut with me,” said Radford. “The stability it has added to me has been a blessing.”
Radford takes full accountability for the life he once lived and says he wouldn’t take anything for his journey because he wouldn’t be the man he is today. It was through a conversation with God he realized as a youth he did not know any better.
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