With rapid flicks back and forth over the ear of a client, Aaron Norris deftly works his shears to demonstrate how he creates a burst fade haircut. He narrates as he trims, pointing out various dos and don'ts, and a two-man video crew captures every word and snip so he can later upload the lesson to his social media channels.

Norris has blended his barbering talent with an interest in marketing to create his own brand: Shear Perfection. He has more than 20,000 Instagram followers and hundreds more on TikTok and YouTube.

"Marketing is the way to succeed in this business, to attract customers who live more than a few miles from your shop," he said, noting that people from as far away as Atlanta now visit his north Raleigh barbershop.

Norris started cutting his own hair as a youth in Moore County to save money. He began earning money from it when his soccer teammates at the University of Mount Olive learned of his shearing skills and lined up for trims.

But he figured cutting hair was just a side hustle, thinking he could never make a decent living doing it full time.

So, he took his bachelor's degree in graphic design and moved to Charleston, S.C., to get started in that field. When he couldn't "get rooted" there, he moved to Raleigh and worked with some friends pressure washing houses. He quickly tired of that job – "You always smell like bleach" – and took another look at barbering as a career. A friend suggested he give Wake Tech a try, telling him he could get a barbering license without spending a lot of money.

William Graham, director of Wake Tech's School of Barbering, quickly put to rest the idea that barbers don't make enough money to support a family. He told Norris and other prospective students that barbers just need to market themselves beyond word of mouth to expand their universe of potential customers.

"Everything clicked into place for me at that moment," Norris said.

Although he had already developed his own technique for cutting hair, he says Wake Tech taught him various aspects of being a professional barber, from safety to being part of a business community.

"It helped me understand why I'm doing what I'm doing, not just doing it," he said.

Norris says he had experimented with creating videos for years, so he decided to put what he learned in his university marketing classes to help promote his barbering skills.

Graham allowed him to bring lights and cameras to class to record how he was cutting hair, and he soon earned the nickname "Hollywood" from other students.

"I was allowed to be creative within the program," Norris said. "He gave me a lot of room to do my own thing."

"Whatever prior experience students have, I encourage them to mesh that with barbering to make the job their own," Graham said. "If you like baking, offer your baked goods to customers at the barbershop. It's another way to market yourself and make some extra money."

Norris started posting his videos on social media, and Cremo, a men's grooming products company, soon offered to pay him to promote their products in his videos. Over time, he landed more sponsorship deals, including one with U.K.-based Electric, which allowed him to travel to London every summer for two weeks of learning about new hairstyles, teaching classes and creating content.

"The U.K. has always been a trendsetter in fashion and hairstyles," Graham said. "It's really cool to see Aaron infuse the whole European-U.K. style in the U.S."

Norris worked for a couple barbershops in Raleigh for a few years before striking out on his own, and he now as two barbers working with him at Shear Perfection. His goal is to eventually expand his shop to provide "a middle ground after barber school," where he can teach classes and provide additional training to young barbers before they go out on their own.

"He was always passionate, innovative and driven," Graham said of his former student. "He knew how to get locked in."