How Winston Reed Built Cut Right Barber & Beauty From Sheer Drive

I interviewed Winston Reed, 37, the owner of Cut Right Barber and Beauty at 811 S. Pulaski Rd. in West Garfield Park on Nov. 7. He was getting ready for a community feeding he planned to host just three days later. Reed’s energy is what his shop’s name promises — sharp, focused, and grounded in purpose. 

I always tell people the same thing: the secret to my success is determination, drive, and hustle. You’ve got to have a vision, and then you’ve got to attack it. Attack the vision. That’s what I did.

I show people this tattoo on my arm. One of my first ones. It’s the shop name — “Cut Right.” I got it back in 2014 or 2015, before any of this existed. I was building the brand even then. I used to post “Come get cut right” on Facebook, and that’s how it took off. I set out the vision early and stuck to it.

I went to Westinghouse Career Academy, and honestly, I don’t know where I’d be without their barbering program. That school gave me direction. It gave me a skill. When I came out, I knew I had something to build on. So I built the brand first — before I had a shop, before I had a location, before any of this.

People ask if the shop is profitable, and yeah — it is. This brand is marketable. But it didn’t come easy. I tell everybody: you get out of life what you put into life. I’m not big on spirituality — I’m big on suffering, on pushing yourself. Everything I do, I beat myself up to do it better. I’m real self-motivated. Always have been. Nobody had to tell me to get up and do something, not even when I was a kid.

What brought me to this location? Vision. But also necessity. I was already thinking about moving, and then the barbershop I was working at got shot up. A couple kids got hit while I was cutting hair. That was Jan. 16, 2020, right down the street on Pulaski. That changed everything and pushed me harder. 

My clientele went down after that, but I never quit. I never folded. I found this space, tore it down, remodeled it, and built it back up myself. I had to. I was forced to find somewhere else to go, but it ended up putting me right where I needed to be.

By Thanksgiving of 2020 — the first year in this new shop — I fed 400 people. That was just the beginning. Every year since, I’ve done something for the community. Because what’s the point of building a brand if you’re not lifting up the people around you?