From Felony Charges to 16 Years Sober: A Hairdresser's Incredible Comeback with Collin Martin

[00:00:01] Hey Jason, are you coming to the Christmas party? No, I'm not gonna come. I quit drinking so I'm just not gonna go. Well, you don't have to drink. And that's exactly why I'm not going.

[00:00:23] Real hairdressers telling real stories about their experiences from behind the salon chair. And we are now saying the quiet parts out loud. This is Sh!t I told my Hairdresser. Hello and welcome back to an episode of Shit I Told My Hairdresser. We're still pushing out more shit.

[00:00:52] Paul and I definitely are. I'm no longer constipated so that's great. How are you Paula? Wasn't it a segway? I'm all for no constipation. I'm doing great, thank you. Alright. Anyhow guys, thank you so much for going through and giving us a follow on Instagram and on TikTok. One of the things about the subscribe button on wherever you find us, it's free. So go ahead and click that little button.

[00:01:20] Tell all your friends about us. We really, really appreciate it because just like the hairdressing industry, we are word of mouth. So let all your friends know because we definitely want to go through and hurt their little ears. And also we want your shit stories. Get on our website at shititeltmyhairdresser.com. Send us a voicemail or an email. We are a little bit backed up guys and I will get to you as soon as I possibly can. Thank you so much for all your emails and I will get to you as fast as possible.

[00:01:48] But having said that, we have a guest today who I have been looking forward to this interview for a long time. We have Nicholas Augustine from Hanzo Shears. How are you, my friend? I'm doing well. Hi Colin. Hello. How are you? Doing good. Nothing sacred here. We're going to hear all about the BMs. According to us. Yeah. You know, as you guys were talking, I was thinking, and it's funny cause I don't watch a lot of South Park.

[00:02:17] It kind of drives me nuts, but I do remember there's an episode where doesn't Cartman like eat up his butt and poop out of his mouth. Like, Oh my God. Shit out of his mouth. Yeah. Well, that's, that's the show. That's exactly the show. I thought I'm never going to watch this show again. Why watch it when you can live it? Exactly. Right. Colin. Absolutely. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you kind of got started and then we'll get into what is going on my friend. All right.

[00:02:46] Um, man, a little bit about myself. Like I said, the past few days have been busy and I don't use that term lightly or positively. I think that there is a difference between being highly productive and relaxed and being overly worked. Um, and usually by my own burden. Um, I'm a yes, man. I have a hard time. It's one of my biggest things I've practiced for 16 years of sobriety is learning how to say no better.

[00:03:16] Um, yeah. Cause it's a variety. You have to say yes to everything. Right. I mean, that's what they say for a while. It's right. It does. It does work. Yeah. But then you get back into real life and then realize not everyone that you're, uh, interacting with is working a program like you either. So, you know, we'll talk about those scoundrels later, but, uh, yeah, get to the real scoundrels. Yeah. Um, but no, uh, I, I, I'm in salon.

[00:03:44] Uh, we have a salon here in South Florida and I'm Inglewood, Florida. So that's right outside of Sarasota. I'm only behind the chair, uh, once, uh, every other Wednesday right now. But I do believe in real time hairdressing. I do believe in, um, being behind the chair. If you're going to be a real educator, because I've, I've seen so many classes where I, I just kind of even giggle at like how many partings they have taken and pinned off before they ever even got started. And I'm thinking, my God, I want to made $135.

[00:04:14] Yeah. And you do and quarter it and let's go, you know, I'm sorry. A haircut should be 15 minutes. If you're taking longer, if you've been, you know, an educator, you take a longer than 15 minutes for a haircut. What do you have going on? Like what's up? And you know, there are the, the farm view in between that definitely take longer. If you get into a lot of your precision based stuff and like craft cutting, but even then there are tools that they're making nowadays.

[00:04:41] I mean, hell, the company I work for Hanzo makes, um, a scissor that I have yet to see a head of hair, stop it. And it's got a curve blade and a straight blade. So it sucks the hair in meaning I'm cutting bobs without taking sections. Now, do I think that the two year in hairdresser should be doing that? No, I think that there's a rhyme and reason. I think you should understand how to cut hair before you jump into huge condensed section cutting. Um, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:09] I mean, if you want to keep a clientele, you should. So yeah. Um, I've been with Hanzo now for 13 years. Um, and that's kind of part of my big story. It's, um, that the company is amazing. I know that there's a lot of hit and miss with how people think, and that's based on just some of the humans we've hired over the years.

[00:05:27] And when you're trying to run a nationally based company, it's hard to keep a tight leash on everyone and know every human intimately that you hire and trust that they're out there treating people the way we would want to be treated. But, you know, I think that's what's cool too, is a lot of ex hairdressers or hairdressers that want to be in the industry, but they just can't do it behind the chair anymore. Oh, what a great job for them because they truly feel like they're helping when they run into that new person. They're not trying to sell them something expensive.

[00:05:57] They're good. They're trying to get them into something that's going to work without snag. I'm a big, ha ha, texturizer is mostly. Um, so yeah, and that, that was my experience from the very beginning, you know? So if you want to go there, we can, we can go back in time and talk about some scoundrels from the very beginning and some, some true blessings in my life from the very beginning. No, I would say, let's start off with some of those scoundrels from the beginning. Cause I remember you went to beauty school and you had a great experience with that, right?

[00:06:25] Yeah. Yeah. You know, I know we've kind of beat that drum, but your story is a little bit different. You know what I mean? Well, what's happening right now. And it is. And, and, you know, the school that I chose was a highly accredited school. She was an educator for a very major company for a long time. She had seen the world through them. She was an amazing hairdresser, you know, and, um, she had a partner who had passed away that in itself kind of questionable.

[00:06:53] There's a lot of skepticism about his death as well. Yeah. Kind of strange. And she took over the school and, um, but I always felt very, very loved. Uh, when I enrolled and I actually walked in to talk to them about barbering and my friend Chad, who I had known since I was, you know, mid teens, you know, we grew up in the scene era together, you know, the scene era.

[00:07:17] And, uh, and, um, you know, because I went to school later in life, you know, I guess we should say like, I worked historic restoration for a long time. It's probably why I loved hair cutting so much from the beginning. Cause it was geometry, man. And I understood these angles and how to cut things and fit things in and how things would fall. Yeah. It just really went from, you know, building on flat ground to building on oval surfaces.

[00:07:43] And absolutely getting on the outside of that, how it's going to lie, uh, really takes a certain kind of mindset. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so hair cutting just kind of clicks for me and I'm a lefty, you know, and most lefties have a hard time in school, but Chad's girlfriend who was also an instructor in school. Oh, there's a big surprise there. Right. Um, yeah, there's always couples in schools. You guys know how that goes, but, um, she was left handed.

[00:08:09] And so anything that maybe didn't click, um, she, she would help along. And it's funny. We ended up getting apartments. Like they lived above me. That was probably one of the worst mistakes he ever made because that's when the mullet production videos were all releasing and like Muldoon and Takashi and all those guys were in their Adidas suits and cut like the dopest ass haircuts, but taken like DJ was taken the wildest diagonal partings. Man, Chad, he, he was so sorry. He introduced me to that.

[00:08:39] Cause it'd be 2am and I'd be up there knocking on his door. Like, I need you to come downstairs and explain this haircut to me. I was infatuated from the beginning. Yeah. You know? And so, um, through school, I loved it. Um, I, I trained a lot. The school was Indiana required 1500 hours. This school required 1850 and the other three 50 were all haircutting hours. I I'm, there's a reason why no one that left that school didn't get a job right away. And it's cause they can cut hair.

[00:09:07] And if you talk to anybody today, I mean, I have more requests for hands on this year than I've had the past 12 years of traveling. And they're all saying the same thing. They literally don't know how to cut hair. They don't. So I quit, I quit teaching. I want to say 2020, like when COVID happened, the last show I was supposed to do was, uh, the Chicago show got killed canceled. And whenever I would walk in and teach a class, I would always ask, what do you guys really want to work on?

[00:09:35] And you know what the biggest response was my basics, right? Yep. I want to work with my situation. It's like, is there over comb the flow of haircutting? That's what that is. Yeah. You know, and just getting them to understand a fate is graduation and getting them. I mean, if you want to go way back, we should be calling it gradation. It should have no graduating as you're going from high school to college. It's not a, it's gradation. It comes from construction. Yeah.

[00:10:05] But, um, so yeah, back, back to all that, you know, I even, I love that school so damn much that, um, that was the hell. It was my first hair show. That was when I was introduced to Ira for the first time. Oh, cool. Yeah. He was cutting for Paul Mitchell. It was at the grand rapid show and grand Rapids used to have a cool show and the whole team was there and he told his story and man, I know, I know. And I, we still do the shows together back in the day. I know. Yeah.

[00:10:34] And I feel it still today. Yeah. I'm a Pisces. I might cry a little bit on this damn show, but yeah, um, but anyway, yeah. So, you know, just a lot of mind blowing moments from the very beginning, the Chicago show, the Columbus show. It used to be so awesome back in the day when they did the party down the street from the show afterward, you know, and it was the big outdoor party event. And before all the cool kids got here. Yeah.

[00:11:00] Little John and the East side boys throwing free stickers out at hair shows and shit, you know, it's, it's gotten ridiculous, but so yeah. Um, Chad and I even remodel. We were modeled the school on our own time. We, we spent almost 12 hours a day, um, for two weeks straight over Christmas break, remodeling the whole school. That's how much I love the school, you know? And, and so, uh, come graduation time, boy, did we all get woke up and here comes the scoundrel part.

[00:11:27] The, um, the owner of the school had been embezzling money through student aid funding in our names. Um, he, so, and this isn't even the worst, but my cosmology license was a $72,000 bill. Oh, so he, was he applying for student aid under your name? She, yeah, she, yeah. Oh shit. Was it government funded? You said?

[00:11:57] Oh yes, it was government funded? Government money. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Cottages, Corvette, daughter was driving GQ vehicles. Like it was, uh, it was something. What the fuck? Oh, you can look it up. It's masters of cosmetology in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Look it up. It's all in public record newspapers. Old articles are still there. It was five years in court. That woman never saw a day in jail. My buddy, uh, another guy.

[00:12:27] Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. She never, were you on the hook for paying for it? Did you get off? You know what they say? It's, um, you're going to do crime, do white color crime. And that's exactly what she did. Yeah. You know? So did you, were you exempt from that? Did you pay for it? Did, were you held accountable? Oh yeah. It, this, it gets even deeper. So like my friends, his was like, I think 114,000 was his final total after all the damage. So she gets arrested, but never sees a day in jail. You know, they charge her.

[00:12:56] Um, it takes almost five years of court. Now, mind you, none of us are paying on these loans. We refuse to. So that's five years. And I had just gotten sober a year and a half prior to this. So I'm just trying to clean up my life. And this happens. Now I have zero credit anywhere. Cause I'm not paying on government loans. Oh yeah. Federal loans. You've got penalties all around. Yeah. Now here's what's nuts. I'm so glad you asked this.

[00:13:26] I can't explain why. And I'm still this many years later going through it. Um, but two of us, myself and another student at the time, good friend of mine still, um, her name's Danielle. Um, we were the only two people that they didn't wipe debt free. Now, mind you, they wiped me down to like 13,000 something. And they, I don't know what they wiped her down to, but this is the mind blowing thing.

[00:13:55] The people that had already paid off their loans cause mom and dad had money and weren't going to have their kids having bad credit until this court situation got straightened out. They got cut checks back for the full amount. So explain why myself and one other person somehow kind of like how we were trying to connect this call today, I guess it's interference at times, man. It's unexplainable, but I don't know, man. I'm like, yeah.

[00:14:25] Yeah. Yeah. So, so yeah, I went through all that. Yeah. That's fucked up. Yeah. So, so yeah. Um, onward, you know, you know, let me say this. I actually have got this story a little backwards. You gotta understand this was 17, 18 years ago. Sure. Um, this all was found out. So I went out and started working in a salon, right? And it was a place called show me is out north. It was a L'Oreal professional salon. So really good training from the jump. Um, she was amazing.

[00:14:54] She could keep that salon open by herself. And she had 14 chairs. That woman could wrap two perms an hour and squeeze a haircut in. She was mind blowing. That's how she made all her money on perm. I'm going to talk about the snow and money. That was the salon. Yeah. That was my, that was my mom's car. So I know. Yeah. Yeah. Little Korean lady, man. She could just, Oh, she just, she was right there. I'm level with the damn her. You know, she was right there, man. Yep. So I, I ended up, I see, cause I, I had a great relationship with that school.

[00:15:23] So I ended up, um, they asked me if I would come back, get my educator's license. They would figure out a way to get full grant. So we haven't, none of us have figured out this yet about our loans, right? They'll get us or get me a full grant to pay for my educator's license. So I could maybe sub sometimes for them when they were short stepped, because you know how it is. You have to have so many staff for so many students in the school. Um, and so I agreed to that.

[00:15:49] And that's actually when I met Hattori Hanzo Shears is when I was back in there getting my educator's license. So it's kind of a, Hanzo is a funny story in itself because it's a company that accidentally happened. And it's because it's two great people that own it. I'm telling you that their story, we can do a whole, you should bring them on sometime. You'd laugh your ass off at their store. You know, I mean, they pulled back up from their first hair show from Vegas and went to

[00:16:19] open their garage door and the garage door wouldn't even open because they didn't have any money. Oh no. Yeah. Yeah. From that to the number one scissor company in the world. I mean, you can agree or disagree, but the numbers say so. Okay. There you go. You know what I mean? Um, so yeah, we all have our personal favorites, but yeah, sure. So anyhow, yeah, I was back in school and, um, come to find out, I didn't know this at

[00:16:45] the time, but, um, Hanzo, they had somehow Andrew, that's the director of our education. He kind of oversees it all. Um, he wormed his way into a school, uh, conference. That's how it all started. And he met Katie, who was the owner of masters and talked her into letting them come and do this demo class. And so him and an artist named Justin Thomas, whose fearless hairdresser on Instagram, huge inspiration of mine.

[00:17:13] Honestly, I think he's one of the best hair cutters, uh, I've ever met in my life. You know, everybody has final looks, but when you watch that guy's technical skills, it's just like, are you serious? Yeah. Like how do you have fingers? And I'm fast. You know what I mean? So, but, uh, but anyway, so they taught this class. I was blown away by the class, you know, thought there's no way in hell I'm buying these scissors. I didn't have any money guys. I was a year and a half clean. I had completely destroyed my life through addiction.

[00:17:42] I didn't have credit like at my own mother's house, let alone a credit card company or a little likes. You know what I mean? And, and so at the end of the class, they said these magical words, man. They said, we do interest free payments with no credit check. And when he said no credit check, I stood up and went, what did he just say? Yeah. And so, you know, it was 10% down cost me $110. You were supposed to do it that day.

[00:18:10] The guy worked with me for two weeks. Let me send him 50 bucks, 45 bucks until I got my down came. And then ship me my scissors. I loved them, fell in love with them right away. They held an edge. That's the thing. I had been through a few brands. I had a really good hair cutter as a trainer and I had some nice brands in my hands, not tip top. Right. Sure. But mediocre a five, 600, $700.

[00:18:37] And, um, what I always noticed is I love dry cutting. Always have. I think refining is, is it? I think refining is what makes the haircut become a style and, and good ones don't need hardly anything. They just look good to me. That's a good haircut. The for product, you know? Yeah. To me, that's the paint and the shingles. Yeah. So I started cutting with them and Chad, the educator, um, had started communicating with

[00:19:05] Andrew a little bit and they reached out to me and asked me, this is about a year in, you know, to me owning my scissors, if I would consider working for them. Um, and I couldn't get us out of my mouth quick enough. Yeah. Um, and they wanted Chad to, to be an artist. They didn't even know about my haircutting ability, right? They were hiring me as a sales rep. They were hiring me as a sales rep. Oh, but right. But I knew that I could cut hair in the salon, still do that stuff and sell some scissors.

[00:19:34] I knew everybody in the city. I was older when I graduated, you know? So, um, it was one of those things that all ego aside, people had some respect for me and my haircutting ability, especially as early on as it came on. Fair enough. I mean, I started truthfully, I started cutting hair at 14. I'm an eighties kid, man. My friend came home from the barbershop with a word cut in his head and I about had a all over, you know? And next thing you know, we're cutting little bracing stripes.

[00:20:03] I've got a picture on my Instagram of me, 14 years old mullet and racing stripes, you know? But anyhow. Um, so yeah, so they hired me for that. And then there was some things going on with Chad, similar to my problems. Oh, right. And so things got kind of messed up from the beginning. Uh, I started repping for about three weeks, but then shit fell apart on our first little class tour. We were going to do an Indianapolis. So Andrew goes, can you just go do it?

[00:20:32] Because I had already come back from training. Right. In training, they asked me one day if I could cut one of the guys hair. Cause they knew I had a license because Justin was out of town. And I said, yes, I cut a full scissor over comb haircut on a guy. And they were like, what the fuck? Huh? They didn't know I had skills. You know what I mean? So they send me on this trip, go sell some shit. Right. Right. And so they send me on this trip.

[00:20:59] I taught, and then I turned around and sold all on my own. Ah, right. It's been that way. Ever since I've worked for Hanzo. I'm the only one that does it. Everybody works with a sales rep and an art sales rep and artists. I've never understood it. That's for another day. But I, I think if you teach a good class and people want the tools, they get them. Yep. Yeah. That's a two for, yeah. I think that's why I have the lowest return rate in the company.

[00:21:29] There you go. I just, I sell people what they need. Not, not what costs the most. Yeah. Cause not only that though, it's like, I've had so many sales rep undermine me. Once I get into the salon, I'll teach a class and then I'll say something. Then they'll undermine what I'm saying to the salon owner. And like, oh, we'll do this for you instead of like what he's saying. And I'm like, wait, what? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So I've had a few of those moments. Cause there's been moments I've worked with, you know, but it's much easier when you're on your own. You know what I mean?

[00:21:59] That's for sure. Cause you're in control. It's harder and it's easier, you know, cause I'm doing the driving, I'm doing the selling. I'm inputting the orders, but see, it's kind of a control freak thing, but I know all of my client base is always taken care of. Everyone knows they can reach out to me on Instagram. I'm within 24 hours. I get back to them and do whatever needs done. Hanzo has a great system for sharpenings. If you sign up for their program, um, one of the five things the program offers is we

[00:22:27] mail you demos just like the ones you buy from us with a prepaid postage. So even if you have a rep and don't want to deal with your rep, you know, some salons do not like outsiders in at all. And we respect that, but you still need sharpening. You still want them sharpened from the manufacturer. You're ensuring your own integrity. So no one else can mess with your integrity. And speaking of that, name another company that offers you two weeks to return and 30 days to exchange a scissor. None. And that's the other reason I bought from them.

[00:22:57] I was blown away. I, I, I make a joke all the time. I said, we go to hair shows and we do what I call the pay and pray program. You pay in full and you pray all the way home. You like it. Cause your ass is stuck with it. Yeah. That is so true though, because as soon as they, oh, well you must have used them. And if you want to return them, then I can only give you half of the money back. You're like, dude, I'm fucked. If they even return your call. Right. Yeah. Very true.

[00:23:26] Very true. You know, and that's just it. I sell with integrity and I believe that Hanzo, no matter. I know that people have had some, you know, bad experiences, but that's with any company, especially companies that climb the way we climbed. Yeah. We got attacked by every company, every sharpener. Why wouldn't we, we no longer allowed sharpeners to sharpen our scissors where we were making it easy on you guys. And they were going broke, which I get it. Yeah.

[00:23:53] If you fell in city with our center scissors, a sharpener really starts to lose money. Yeah. No, it's true. You know what I mean? But that's really careful on who sharpens your scissors guys. The last one I had back to the manufacturer. I always, always do wherever I bought them from my center back. Cause if you don't, they don't understand how they sharpen or we know, or if they, Oh my God, who are they trained by? What about when they sharpen the backside of the blade?

[00:24:21] So your front sharp and now you're, I'm like, Oh, so this is for scissor over comb. And then you just straight raise them right afterwards. Straight. I mean, I got a pair of scissors back one time. I thought, did I send you, did I get back scissors or needle nose pliers? I don't know what the fuck these things are. Yeah. They put them on a grinder. Right. Yeah. And that's the other thing, you know, we've got 12 trained professionals that do this for eight to 10 hours a day in a lab with polishing wheels. So we take less steel and never change your angle.

[00:24:50] We are keeping the life in your scissor by you sending them to us, you know, and when you spend, this is the other thing people don't take into consideration. Cause I really, I wish I would have met Hanzo right from the beginning. Cause I bought about three pair of those 325 $410 scissors. Yep. Hell man. That first one was my down payment on a four share set. Yeah. That second one was three months of payments. That third one was three months of payments.

[00:25:18] Now I almost have them paid off and you have a lifer set, you know? Yeah. And any artists from any caliber of work, sculpting, painting, anything will tell you the longer you work with the tools, they become your body parts. Second nature. That's when the flow begins. That's when the worker bee leaves the salon and the flow begins, man. That's artistry. I have a pair that's like 20 years old until someone fucked them. You know what I mean? And I was like, Oh yeah. Probably like centric. That was Hikari.

[00:25:48] Yeah. I mean, which is a good brand. You know what I mean? And then someone just like, I was like, yeah, I need him sharpen. I think they fell. Someone dropped them and this guy sharpened them. And I'm like, they're done. They're done. You know? And that's just, yeah. It's a, they make a great scissor. They're one of the top brands. The number one thing I see happen is that screw pull through the hole after years where it, the screw buck through the plate and then they just come apart and there's, you know, nothing you can do at that point. But I feel like, I think 20 years is a good fucking run though. You know what I mean?

[00:26:19] I got my money's worth. No, no, no. Like I said, man, I'm just an honest person. That's what, that's the only thing I have ever seen. And like I stated over a long period of time, it happens. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and that's just, um, the blade getting thinner, like you said, and having to tighten more and more. And eventually it just pushes through that plate. So, you know, but no great scissor. I've heard a lot. I like dad shit about Hanzo though. You know what I mean? Ooh, like what?

[00:26:51] Like the shitty shears and the guys are a bunch of douchebags that work for them. Oh, we've had some of them. Yeah. Yeah. We've had some douchebags. I worked for a team guy for years and years. I'm not talking about some douchebags. I mean, I'll, I can tell you all about her. American UK is a different caliber, man. Totally different. You know what I mean? So I have the UK guys more on my coming onto my podcast, talk about this other, I suppose the U S side, which we have a long issue with there too.

[00:27:20] But what kept you with Hanzo? I mean, what was the difference with that? You know what I mean? Freedom. Yeah. Freedom. You're more creative when you're free. Right. I mean, I've had, I've had, I've had hair salons and owners try to kind of like rule me, even though I was, I was well-established on my own, but I would go into some salons and they would try to rule me, sculpt me, put me in a box and my creativity just couldn't help. The polar opposite of this company.

[00:27:50] This company should have fired people long before, but they, man, they believe it. First of all, they, they believe in the man upstairs and, and they believe in second and third. And for like, they believe you turn the other cheek, you, you, if you believe that person, I was one of these people, see, I'm choking up. Um, if you believe that person is good in their heart and making some bad choices. Yeah.

[00:28:14] Are you going to do them more harm by going saying goodbye or, you know, because believe me, these guys know the difference between helping and enabling. They don't enable anybody. Right. I will tell you some of our higher ups have, I'm not going to, you know, expose other people, but have years in the program and have real integrity. They work a 12 step program. If you've never looked at one, I think the whole world needs to be.

[00:28:43] I don't think it's about addiction. I think it's about unresolved traumas of your parents that they passed on to you long before you ever drank or drugged. Those are magnifiers. They time. Those are magnifiers, man. Yeah. They just bring the worst of it out. And did Hanzo give you a break? Oh my gosh. So here's the part of my, the craziest part of my story. When they called me and offered me a job, I was on the tail end.

[00:29:13] Of Indiana's drug court program. I was about a year and a half through it. I had been facing two felonies, class B felonies for distributing narcotics. Oh shit. Oh shit. Yeah. So let's back up just a hair. Yeah. When I got clean, I got clean on my own. And six months after I was clean, I was out of town and got a phone call by the person that was walking, watching my two sons.

[00:29:39] That said, there was just two officers at the door with two class B warrants for your arrest. So I went back home and went and talked to a lawyer and the lawyer, he was a friend of my father's. My father's been in the program for a long time. And he goes, I got to tell you, Colin, I'm going to be really honest with you, man. And I'd keep your head low until after Easter and enjoy your family because I cannot promise you what's going to happen once you walk through those doors, buddy. These are bad charges. So I did just that.

[00:30:08] I ducked until after Easter. And then me and my two best friends at the time went and had a steak dinner. They're tattooers, which everybody always thinks I am. Right. Anybody with a lot of tattoos. Um, my two sons are tattooers now, my two grown son, but we went and tattooed threes on the back of, of each other's ears. And then they drove me and I dropped myself off. And I told myself, if this is where God wants me, this is where he wants me. Like I can do his work anywhere. Yeah.

[00:30:36] And so I was up on the block for months and, uh, my name got called one day and I got taken down to this little room and this big ginormous guy named Tornell came walking through the door. I mean, this guy was six foot, probably seven, 300. He was a monster, man. Fucking wall. Yeah. And I'm like, Jesus, does prison start now? No, but

[00:31:06] He's like, yes, it is. As I listen to my plugs rough to the floor. Where's your daddy? Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's right. Um, and he interviewed me and, and I honestly wasn't even sure what was going on. And, um, the interview was over and they took me back up to the block. And then a couple of weeks later they called my name again. And they said, you have court this morning and they took me down and they introduced you to the drug court program. I was the first person in the state of Indiana to be accepted. Mm-hmm.

[00:31:34] But what's cool is I was sober for six months working a program, going to meetings every single day. People there knew me. They wrote letters to the courts about it. Um, that's what we do. Yeah. Um, so then, then Hanzo gives me the call. Mm-hmm. Right. And says, you want a job? I say, yes. I hang up the phone.

[00:32:03] And then I go, oh, fuck. How I can't go to California and train. I'm on work release. So I called him back and I said, man, I gotta tell you something. And I told him everything. And he's like, oh, fuck. I'm going to have to call you back. Which I mean, I don't blame him. Um, cause I knew nothing about the company at the time. Um, but I had been talking to one of the brothers. So there's two brothers and then like a best friend, you know, and the, one of the brothers and best friend own the company.

[00:32:33] And the other brother is kind of the overseer of operations. He's amazing. Um, so that it took about two hours for them to call me back, man. And, and I mean, I was, it was the, it felt like 48 hours. Totally. And they called me back and, and now they're on FaceTime. And now John, one of the owners is, is, is on there with him. And they're like, man, we don't care about that.

[00:32:56] Like if you're who we met, who we've been talking to, we don't care about that guy. And they gave me a job. So then I have to go to Tornell who ended up being my, my drug court officer. He just retired. How cool. Yeah. Even cooler. Tornell and I are friends. Um, every time I go back to Indiana, we have lunch. Um, he just retired last month.

[00:33:25] So, um, he saved a lot of people. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. That's so, um, you know, most, most employers, they hear things like that and they just don't call you back or they just run away from you. Absolutely. You know? And so then I get it cleared with drug court. Now I'm the first person in the state of Indiana drug court that has ever been cleared to go out of state for training for seven days. Oh, right. On the condition that I still call every day.

[00:33:55] Listen for my color. If my color is cold, I have to go take a drop somewhere. Right. So I had to clear all of this. I had to find a spot like by the training center that would take me and do a, like a, whatever they call them a viewed, we know where they watch actually pee. Yeah. Um, all that crap, man. And I got it all cleared and the court let me go. And so that morning came, I think it was the third or fourth morning I was out there for

[00:34:21] training and, and the other owner had walked up to me, um, on day one and introduced himself. He goes, I'm assuming you're Colin Martin. And I said, I am. And, and he said, so, Hey, I just want to let you know, I know what's going on. Um, and, and I want you to also know, like people here don't need to know your business. If you don't feel like sharing things, don't share things. We'll get you in and out. Um, if they call your color without them even seeing you, we'll just kind of sneak in, sneak you out.

[00:34:50] And so that morning came and. So I walk over and tell him and he's like, finish your breakfast and we'll go. And so I finished my breakfast. Yeah. We're walking out of the hotel talking and I'm talking and I, which I do a lot. And, and you'll realize. Yeah. I realized he wasn't next to me and I turned around looking for him and he's standing at

[00:35:16] the entrance of the hotel with the keys to his brand new lectures saying, see when you get back. Oh, that's not much. That's what kind of faith he had inside you. You see? Yeah. That just doesn't happen. It doesn't. This is the things people don't hear. You know, this is the heartbeat of the company. You know? Wow.

[00:35:42] I mean, somebody having that much faith in you, that must've been just so, I mean, I'm almost in tears right now. That must've just, I mean, just lifted your heart. Oh, I mean, my loyalty is unparalleled to anything other than God, my family in this company. Wow. See, I've seen it. I had a boss went to, went to Betty Ford for three months. And when he got back, his business partner treated him very differently. He treated him like shit. Yeah.

[00:36:09] And he really took advantage of the fact that he was an addict. Yeah. Like why would just spend three months at Betty Ford? Well, someone's fucking, sometimes they fucking need it. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Sometimes you just got down need it. And there's like, you know, I have, and I didn't do any of that. I went to a real halfway house to me. That's a fucking getaway. Those are fucking spa baths, man. I was in downtown where there's fucking bed bugs in these houses, shit like that.

[00:36:38] Like the gutter. Whoa. That's where I was. Cause I had nobody. I was homeless for three months before I finally called my father and said, I'm going to sneak away from this place I'm at. I would need you to meet me over at this Hardee's. Do not come here. Right. There'd be a fucking gunfight. Yeah. Oh, I was with the worst of the worst people. Yeah. You know, I ran with an older crowd than myself and it was a small group and they were lethal. Yeah. You know?

[00:37:07] And, and so, um, I've been to Indiana before I've been in Indianapolis. Let me tell you, I've seen some shit down there. And it's funny. Cause everybody says like, well, you grew up in Indiana. I'm like, it's take yourself to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Let me tell you. Look up some articles about Fort Wayne, Indiana. I've been to Indy. I haven't been to Fort Wayne, but I've been to Indianapolis and let me tell you, I saw some shit there. Look up Gary, Indiana. Oh yeah. That's what we have.

[00:37:32] The highest crime in the, in the country for years consecutively. And they just think everyone's just corn fed and just like, Oh, we're just, we got you. Yeah. Yeah. Corn fed with nothing to do. Yup. Yeah. You have your problem. So yeah. Yup. That's why you see good haircutters come out of the Midwest. Cause you either get good at something or you get real bad. Yeah. Legitimately.

[00:38:00] Cause there's a lot of time on your hands sometimes, you know? No, that's very true. And that's one thing about the industry as well, too, is that we do have this problem. I was just talking to a friend of mine last night and he was talking about Vidal Sassoon when he was like kind of calling it out saying our industry has a massive drug problem. I mean, even his daughter had an overdose, you know? So he was very aware of it and he was trying to get all the other hairdressers to pay attention. Just.

[00:38:27] I think we all know of another large hairdresser family with a lot of schools that's had a lot of those problems run through it. I believe I heard you guys talking about that on another podcast or at least that system. We didn't talk about him, but yeah, there's been, you want to want even, you know, my old boss died of an overdose. A lot of people. Oh, I've lost. Oh yeah. Most of my friends I grew up with are gone, man. Yeah.

[00:38:55] And I'm very, very fortunate that I got help and I got sober. And that's one of the things. There's a reason for it. You need to always tell yourself that every damn day, every, every day. Mm hmm. There's a reason you're still here and they're not. Exactly. You know? And so I'm very fortunate. I should not be here. That's for fucking sure. You know what I mean? But I've always kind of held this close to my heart because I saw how the people were

[00:39:19] treated and I saw, I had people in my life that took advantage of what was happening to me. And I always have kind of, kind of kept this close to my heart. I, people now know that I'm sober, but now you guys, I am sober. I'm fucking proud of it. It's been six fucking years. Dude. And hell yes. Congratulations. And it was hard for me to say it at first. And now I'm like, fuck this. Do your fucking worse. Cause I know there's other people out there.

[00:39:47] Like you just found out that will actually go through and help you. And absolutely do now, you know what I mean? And I, yeah. And that's just it. It's, you need to be proud of it. There are so many people that need to hear that. There are so many people that struggle. And until that seed is planted until they see someone that they know did it, they have no hope for themselves. Just like you and I didn't have any hope for ourselves at one point, you know, I was screaming in silence, screaming in silence for help.

[00:40:17] Well, it's a, you know, I grew up with some real old schoolers, man, and they would knock your ass around in the rooms and they'd say things like that's cause you're trying to fill a God sized hole in your heart with everything, but God dumb ass. Yeah. Well, I've heard that. And I'll tell you guys on my own personal experience, I got sober overnight, my sponsor. So I had struggled, man. I was sober for about a year and a half and then I struggled.

[00:40:47] Um, and that's when I really did it then. That's when I made the phone call. The dad said, meet me at Hardy's. Um, I did a three day intensive outpatient program. But when I came to meaning I did this at my mother's house, when I came to that third day, my sponsor that used to be my sponsor was sitting there. And he told me one thing that day. He said, I don't care what you believe in, but at this point you're going to die if you don't start believing in something.

[00:41:13] And if I were you, I would muster up that energy and hit your knees tonight and ask that something to be relieved of this obsession. You're going to die, Colin. And I snaked out of that, that, that night with no belief, hit my knees, said that prayer, woke up the next day. It's been 16 years. I have been in some sticky ass situations. We know how the hairdresser world is in hotel rooms, bathrooms, shit like that. Yep. And it's like, it's, it's grotesque to me. That's not through me.

[00:41:43] That's not by me. That's all I'm saying. Like everybody has your own truth. That's mine, baby. Yeah. That was in there. And it's like, that was the pill I needed. I only got to see it on the sidelines. Both of my brothers had addiction problems and in and out of rehabs. Middle brother ended up in prison right at 19 and then in and out of jails and prison and then ran with all the wrong crowds. And, and absolutely. Yeah. I don't get people better.

[00:42:12] Drug addicts should not go to fucking prison. Yeah. They just learn how to be sneaky or worse. Oh, he thought it could be sneaky. But that's the reason why I never went into it is because I watched them and I learned from their mistakes. And it also makes them do even weirder shit for the high once they're locked up. Oh, yeah. I heard about that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's hard to get in. It's hard time, but it's easy to get shit inside there for my.

[00:42:41] There's people selling their souls in there. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And you talk about halfway houses. My brother was in one of them. My mom would take me to visit him. I'm a way. Are you having a teenage kid coming to this place where it's all men and I'm a cute little girl. And they're all just like, hi. And I'm glad. I hope it scared the shit out of you and scared you out of every bar. You saw. Right. Oh yeah. That's that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:10] I'm like, yeah, this isn't the lifestyle for me. So. Yeah. And then my brother called me self-righteous one time and I said, this coming from a man that just got out of prison. Oh, we're the best. Oh, oh. Narcissistic people are the best at calling unnarcissistic people narcissistic. Yeah. So yeah. I saw it first. I didn't experience it, but I saw it. So. Yeah. Yeah. But that's the thing. It's like, you want to want though? There are good people in this industry and there, and there's a lot of people that are

[00:43:40] struggling. There's people that will help you. You guys, if you're listening and you do need help, reach out. And we're posting this on Instagram, on Tik Tok, send us a DM or something. I mean, we're more than happy to go through and help. Cause that's just what we do. You know, not only as just so. So I'm Martin hair. So hairdressers, you know, also as. Yeah. Yeah. I've got one hairdresser friend, so talented, biggest harpist still has hard time with addictions.

[00:44:09] You know, it's been 20 years from him and goes back and forth and back and forth. And it hurts my heart to see him go through it. And it's, it's just like, God, what can I do? No, I know. Believe me. I, you know, try sponsoring people, try getting close and knowing you have the answer and watching them walk the opposite direction over and over. And you're just like, huh? But you know, my dad always told me I was a slow learner and a fast forgetter too. So.

[00:44:39] Yeah. It's so true. I know. You know, we all have our, yeah, we all, but you know, that's, that's just it, man. I'm, I'm half crazy. One of my clients that I gained over the past, you know, probably a year and a half is a pretty good psychotherapist. She, she works on people out on the islands, you know, and, um, I made a really bad choice of rolling the dice the other day and ask her to diagnose me.

[00:45:05] And she goes, well, I know that, you know, that you're severely ADHD, like high death. Yeah. But has anyone ever told you, you might be bipolar too, not. Not and, but number two. And you know, that's something I'm looking into. I, um, since getting sober, I find that the answer to fixing anything is being able to understand it.

[00:45:35] Absolutely. But that's what's so good about being a hairdresser, right? Is we just get to be the sponge of toxicity. We get to hear it all day long. We did everything. Absolutely. Did you guys happen to see that post the other day? Um, that guy made about me, like the fact that we're in mirrors all the time. I shared it to my story today after this, you guys should check it out. It's amazing. I think I remember saying that we're in mirrors all the time.

[00:46:04] And he's talking about imagery and how you, you don't even know how much you're judging yourself all the time. Cause you are constantly in your own image. You're hyper thinking, hyper focusing hyper because you're aware, you're aware of your self awareness because of that mirror, which makes you hyper aware. It's an interesting. Listen. Yeah. I mean, aging in front of a mirror is a really hard thing, especially as a woman, because watching my butt fall into my legs.

[00:46:33] That I don't like that. I try to do as many squats as possible and it's still sliding down my legs. Yeah. I have like zero, but my wife tells me all the time. So yeah. What, what do you say? I have, what's my butt? What do you call it? What frog, but frog, but yeah, playing no, but that's what happened. Yeah. The non-existent, but I know some wipes all the time. Exactly. This was absolutely amazing.

[00:47:02] Thank you for going through and sharing your story with us. Also, dude, thanks for being sober for 16 years. Absolutely. Your vulnerability. Doing that. It's amazing. Your vulnerability is so awesome to listen to and very inspiring. Thank you. Come to a class at a show sometime. If you guys are at one of the shows, man, it's so fun. You'll see it's I'm very organic and everything that I do.

[00:47:29] I have little points that I hit on through every class, but honestly, for the past two years, I've been told by random amounts of strangers that I should think about doing a haircutting slash comedy stand up at the hair shows live. Please. We should. Please. I think people would absolutely love it. I think it'd be for a fresh. Yeah. I think we need more of that. And we all know. We need good education. We need better education.

[00:47:59] Okay. You guys, if you guys haven't seen calling, you haven't met him. I'm going to go through and put all his information in the show notes, follow him and check out his education. Go and get some with. I definitely want to go through it. I've already seen some of your work. I love it. I definitely want some education from you. So call it. Thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'd love to come back sometime. Hi, you will. All right, guys.

[00:48:28] It's time to hear real with some shitology. We've all been through it. Whether you're going through it yourself, gone through it with family members, coworkers, or other loved ones, reach out to us, someone you care about. We're here for you. Remember one thing, guys, you're not alone. All right. Those are the people in this planet that's going through the exact same thing. You're like, I was saying I was screaming out loud for help in silence. I've been through it. I know exactly what it's like.

[00:48:58] So if you're thinking about getting help or you're thinking about reaching out, all it takes is the first step. That's all you have to do. Reach out to us on the show. If you want to, we're here to help reach out to us on Instagram, on tick tock, or even just go through a sentence and email. We definitely want to hear from you, but guys, all you have to do is just take that first step. That's exactly what I have done. So I am very proud of the person I've become. You can do it too. And with that, stay shitty.

[00:49:27] And see you next time. Hey, listener persons. If you're enjoying this podcast, please give us a rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or Amazon Prime Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shit. It definitely helps out our algorithm. Also, check out our shitty posts on Instagram at Shit I Told My Hairdresser where you can give us a follow and like some of our content. If you'd like to get your story on our podcast, go to our website at ShitIToldMyHairdresser.com.

[00:49:54] You can leave us a voicemail using the green mic icon or send us an email. And if you like us, tell 10 of your friends. And if you hate us, tell 20. And remember, stay shitty, listener persons. .