It’s not unusual to see one person working in the barbershop on the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Evers streets. That’s Raheem Billington, putting in long hours every day as the self-styled “number one barber in the Number One Barber Shop.”
And even if there are 12 customers waiting in line or none at all in the shop, Billington is always positive. The 23-year-old Plant City native is in the upswing of a career renaissance, which has seen him completely turn his life around. He’s close to becoming the sole owner of Number One, has a son on the way and mentors Plant City youths every week.
And, had anyone told him even two years ago that this would be his life, he’d never have believed it.
FALLING STAR
Billington’s upbringing was classic Plant City: He attended Lincoln Elementary, Marshall Middle and Plant City High, and spent much of his life playing football for the Plant City Dolphins and Raiders. As a child, he said he would pray every night for God to lead him to college ball and the professional leagues.
In high school, he was the real deal: a star cornerback with interest from NCAA Division 1 schools. It looked like he was well on his way to achieving his goals, but his life took a turn for the worse in his junior year.
While hanging out with what he describes as the “wrong people,” Billington was jumped at a party during his junior year.
“I was knocked unconscious,” Billington said. “Then I wake up, look at my ankle and it’s hanging there like a feather.”
His football career was never the same.
Ankle surgery required six screws and a metal plate to fix the damage. He wasn’t able to play football in his senior year. The D-1 attention vanished.
He did play in two of his three college stops, at Midland University in Nebraska, and Warner University in Lake Wales, but it became clear that the NFL was out of the question.
“I played football because that’s what I love to do,” he said. “Did I love school? Heck no. But I just felt like I had to do the things that people expected of me.”
As a broke college student with no clear goals in mind, Billington turned to selling drugs as a way to stay afloat.
“I’ve done things in my life where I could have gone to jail for a long time,” he said. “I’ve done things that, I could have maybe been shot or killed. I was in situations in my life that I knew I shouldn’t be in, but I was in them because I let the adversity in my life take me into those situations.”
He did end up in jail, and that was what opened his eyes to turning his life around.
“I looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘Why am I doing something I’ve watched so many other men fail at,’” Billington says. “‘Why am I not trying to seek positive ways, positive energy and positive people in my life, so that I can take my life to the next level?’”
MODEL CITIZEN
When he got out of jail, Billington came back to Plant City with the desire to change, even though he wasn’t sure of which direction to go.
He got support from Paul Granville, owner of Focus 4 Beauty, who helped Billington get both his barber’s license and his cosmetology license through a vocational rehab program. Once Billington picked up the clippers, he knew he’d found his calling.
Billington is also known for his tireless work ethic, and supported himself throughout barber school by cutting hair in his backyard for practice. Even if he wasn’t making money from a cut, he never turned anyone down. He needed the practice, after all.
“I worked at home every weekend,” Billington said. “Every night, I was cutting hair. Anybody who would let me. I would even cut homeless men’s hair, in my neighborhood. Crackheads, bro. If they were walking around the neighborhood, I would literally ask them, ‘Let me cut your hair.’ I wanted to be the best.”
He completed school in a year and two months and moved on from his backyard to My Town Barber Shop, the first black barber the shop had ever hired. After working there for around seven months, Billington jumped on an opportunity to become part-owner and manager at Number One, just down the street.
Now he’s just a stone’s throw away from owning the shop by himself. He markets himself on social media every chance he gets and is also making an impact in the community with longtime friend Kristopher Bellamy’s nonprofit organization, More Than Enough.
Every Wednesday, at 6 p.m., Billington mentors young men at the MLK Rec Center as part of More Than Enough. Billington and Bellamy offer advice to help keep the kids out of trouble and boost their self-confidence, and because Billington just can’t put down those clippers, the boys can also get their hair cut.
Billington’s dream is to make a million dollars before he turns 30, and he doesn’t care who calls him crazy for saying that. But whether he’s successful in that endeavor or not, he said nothing’s better than helping a young man avoid making the same mistakes he did as a youth.
“I’d rather save 10 lives than make $10,000,” Billington says. “I could change 10 different kids’ lives in my neighborhood, and it’s gonna be worth way more than money.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
NUMBER ONE BARBER SHOP
Raheem Billington is the only barber working at Number One Barber Shop and, as a licensed barber and cosmetologist, can do any kind of cut for customers of all ethnicities.
To see some of Billington’s work, check out his Instagram profile: @raheem_cutsbyheem.