It’s not often that you hear about a haircutter changing people’s lives, but Thai Nguyen isn’t just any haircutter. His three million followers on TikTok and Instagram attest to that. One of his clients so loved his new textured cut that he wanted the rest of him to match it. “He lost so much weight, and I thought the worst,” Nguyen recalls. “I asked him, is everything OK? And he said, ‘Yes. After that haircut, I decided to change my life and go to the gym and get in shape.’ It’s really crazy what a haircut can do to someone’s confidence.”

Born in Alexandria to Vietnamese immigrant parents, Nguyen began cutting hair when he was 16 but only got serious when he attended VCU as a Health Science major. Self-taught with the scissors — “I studied at YouTube University” — he says he loved seeing people’s reactions to their new looks. “It genuinely makes me happy to see people respond to it. I like to give out positivity. I feel like there’s too much negativity in the world already.”

Nguyen has been spreading lots of positivity lately as a social media star. In 2023, inspired by seeing other barbers plying their wares on TikTok, he started posting videos of his cuts and immediately earned a fanbase for the special stylings he was giving at Clippers 3.0 salon in Chesterfield (he’s now set up at the Lovato Lofts salon in Scott’s Addition “to be closer to home”). The Fan resident says that his client base consists of “regular people who want a crazy transformation, a difference in their life. I get a lot of people with long hair, and they want it short. Maybe they want to switch things up after having the same hairstyle for a long time.” His signature cut is something he calls “the messy French,” a textured, blown-out style that is fun to watch him create — hence his many online followers.

Since his days at VCU, Nguyen has also offered free haircuts to disadvantaged and homeless people. “I have not had time to do that recently but that’s something I want to continue to do. Some of these guys, they’ve gone months without a haircut. I want them to look good too, you know? Everyone should look good.”