By Holly Desrosier
Everyone’s heard those stories of someone who was dealt a rough hand in life, faced incredible adversity, but eventually found the strength to turn their life around. It may sound like the plot of a feel-good movie, but it’s also the script of Donell Bryant’s life.
Even as a child, the New Bern native quickly learned that life wasn’t going to be easy. His mother worked full time to support the family while his father was mostly absent due to a drug addiction. As a result, he was forced to take on responsibilities well beyond his years, essentially raising his three younger siblings and trying to provide them both a father and a mother figure as best as he could.
As he grew up, Donell discovered he enjoyed cutting hair. What started as a hobby in high school turned into a lifelong passion, and he eventually pursued it as a career. However, he was first faced with some harrowing hardships. He had a family of his own and soon found himself as the sole caregiver to his four children. And, as if the responsibility of suddenly raising his children while still trying to fill the caretaker void in his siblings’ lives wasn’t enough of a downpour, another dark raincloud soon appeared over his head.
“For years, I was a single father raising three girls and one boy by myself,” said Donell. “My youngest daughter was nine months old when I got custody of them. It was really rough, and I got into a situation whereas I was wrongfully accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which resulted in me having to be put into a federal system and fight through that with custody of my kids.”
He served six months in prison, then had to serve six months of federal house arrest and five years of federal probation. He was continually haunted by the fact that he’d have to serve an additional 256 months, or a little over 21 years, if he violated his probation in the slightest. The situation traumatized Donell and his children, and he knew that in order to be a good father, he first needed to get his mind in a good place.
“I was so bombarded with life that I was to a point where I was ready to really end my life,” he admitted. “There was just so much on me.”
Thankfully, his grandmother helped him overcome that dark period, and he began to understand his purpose in life. He stayed at a local hotel for about five months working on bettering himself and coming up with a plan.
“I was able to get my driver license that I had never had, I was able to find an apartment and I was able to really get on track with more business ideas going forward,” said Donell. “That peace of mind meant everything.”
About 11 years ago, he purchased a facility he’d had his eye on for some time and transformed it into his own barbershop. He developed a steady stream of clients but still felt something was missing. He tried living in New York and Charlotte for a while but quickly realized his heart was still in New Bern with his family, clients and community, so he returned.
Donell’s positive transformation continued, and he decided to get his master educator license. As he attended the class in Raleigh for 12 weeks, he noticed others coming in dressed up in ties and realized the direction he wanted to go. Soon after, he became a part-time barbering instructor at Craven Community College. The following year, he was promoted to lead instructor and manager of the barbering program.
“I went from working in the barbershop one day and just coming here a couple hours in the afternoon to overnight running the program,” said Donell. “It was definitely a blessing.”
Even though the college’s barbering program had already been established for a brief time before his arrival, Donell essentially built the program from the ground up. He made the difficult decision to sell his barbershop to focus on the professional side of barbering. He opened a 500-square-foot one-man shop, changed his attire and worked on improving his communication skills, which is when he decided he wanted to teach that same professionalism to his students. His wife convinced him to get his former shop back and use it as another means to help his students. Now called Elite Barber Studio, Donell’s shop has certainly lived up to its name.
“Right now, every individual that’s working in there was a former student at the college,” he said. “I try to keep a place at which there’s no other shop in town that has the standards that we have. My thing was to be able to help these students practice what they had been taught, see it as an example of me running the business and then getting the right training. My barbers come in dressed up every day with ties. We are more of an upscale type environment. It’s an old-school feel with a new-school twist.”
He meets with each student individually before allowing them into the program to make sure they’re a good fit, then takes them all to Goodwill and buys them dress clothes so they can look the part of a professional barber. As someone who grew up in Duffyfield and Craven Terrace, Donell understands that some of his students have no experience with that and are a little nervous, so he takes time to make them all comfortable and teaches them how to correctly tie a necktie and bowtie.
“I want my students to understand if they’re willing to change, they could do so much better than just being average,” he said. “If you want professionals to deal with you, you have to present yourselves as professionals. That has been my drive with these students.”
He recalled an encounter with a student about three years that really opened his eyes. The student was formerly in the military, suffered from PTSD, had several things going on and was ready to end it all.
“I was in my office and as we were sitting talking, I was sharing things with him and trying to open up myself to him, and that’s how I am with all my students,” said Donell. “I’m an open book. They know about my jail time; they know about my ex-life of being in the streets and all of that.”
After that interaction of talking, laughing and crying together, Donell realized part of his purpose was to relate to and give hope to his students and anyone else going through tough times. That realization ignited a fire in him and inspired him to work even harder to connect with all his students, despite their differences in ethnicity, culture, background and age, which has ranged from 17 to 77.
“There’s not been one individual that I have not been able to connect with and get close to on all different levels, and that’s what has given me that ‘can’t stop, won’t stop’ attitude,” said Donell. “Everybody in New Bern knows that’s my motto, and that’s how I live my life.”
Under his direction, the program has achieved a 98% state exam pass rate. In 2015, the North Carolina Board of Barber Examiners presented Donell with an Outstanding Leadership Award, the first time for them to bestow such an award. He also recently received the college’s Staff Excellence Award for 2020.
He started this year’s program on March 10 with 40 students—his largest class yet—before the college closed March 16. His was one of the state’s first barbering classes to transition to an online format. He immediately began streaming on Facebook Live every night to stay connected with them and talk about the barbering industry, and it soon blossomed into more than he had imagined. Other barbering instructors around the state contacted him to let him know that their students would be tuning in to his livestreams each night. He even gained connections with prominent barbers throughout the country.
“I’ve also created other courses away from Craven through my business of Elite Barber Studio, and I’m able to teach and do other things that barbers don’t have to be here to do it now,” said Donell. “I can teach sanitation classes to other barbers in other states. Through this pandemic, I have been learning the whole time and making sure that my students know that I’m learning.”
Donell is also part of a mentoring program, Young Gentlemen United, created with former students who are now barbers. They teach young men skills needed to succeed in life, including dressing for success and developing good manners, etiquette and chivalry. Before the pandemic, they actively partnered with the Omega Center to provide free haircuts for the community every third Saturday. They have gone to area high schools and cut students’ hair before prom and give free back-to-school haircuts to children at his church, Without Limits Christian Center, as well as several other community events.
“I try to really use the barbering portal to reach out and do so many other things that I know we could be a big asset to,” said Donell.
They have also teamed up with Young Urban Professionals to assist with area trash pickups, including the Duffyfield area. It meant a lot for Donell to have his students see the area in which he grew up, as well as the residents witnessing his class.
“I really try to bring it out in the community because I see other individuals that may have been in the streets, they’ve been through tough times and had hard lives,” he said. “They see the students in the program, they see them dressing nice, being respectful—it has a tendency to start change in their hearts.”
Donell is also very active in his church, Without Limits, and has become increasingly involved over the years. He started off by standing out on Neuse Boulevard and holding a sign directing people to the church, which he said was a very humbling experience that helped him grow. Staying in the public eye made him feel like he was being held accountable for his actions and motivated him to stay on the right path, especially during his low points.
“That was a big thing that helped me get through it all,” he said. “There’s nothing that I’m ashamed to do to be a better person, and that was the start with being out there on the front.”
Donell’s duties progressed to directing traffic in the church parking lot. A few years later, his pastor asked him to work with the kids’ ministry. Donell was honored to be requested for such a big responsibility. It was then, he said, that he knew he couldn’t put himself in a position where he could make bad decisions, especially not when fellow church members and children looked up to him.
Donell’s children are now ages 26, 23, 21, 19 and 16, and he has four grandchildren. He credits his wife with helping him through the tough times. He is also appreciative of a supportive community and those who never gave up on him, and he wants everyone to realize that regardless of the neighborhood or situation they grew up in, no one should let that dictate their future.
“My life has just been blossoming,” said Donell. “I can’t complain about anything, and I always tell the students as well as my wife and family and friends that if God was to take me home as of today, I would be so proud of what I’ve done because I never expected to be who I am today or doing the things that I’m doing.”
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Published with permission by the New Bern Sun Journal. This article was originally published July 13, 2020.