The oath to attaining our dreams are not laid in rose petals or hibiscus flowers. It is covered in thorns and rough edges that must be smartly manoeuvred. But the process is never a day job. The ability comes with mental preparation, which the CEO of 360Kuts, also called Khalilimages, Jimmy Ofuoyan, was equipped with from childhood.
He was born without a silver spoon.
Jimmy Ofuoyan endured adversities as a child to survive in a Nigerian family of nine which consists of four girls and three boys, and youngest of the brothers. They say life is a teacher, and Jimmy Ofuoyan was certainly well taught about fighting to achieve his dream.
As a teenager, he had charted the course of his journey. He became an apprentice under his own blood brother and acquired skills in braid and fixing hair for women at a unisex salon. To complete his skill set, he taught himself how to give men the most trendy haircut by watching YouTube videos. In 2014, he obtained a certificate for the completion of knowledge acquisition under his brother, with whom he remained and worked afterwards for a period.
To forge ahead, the founder of 360Kuts decided to leave the country in 2016 with a relative and friends for Italy through Libya. Unfortunately, they fell into the hands of human traffickers; which have become rampant in the country since Muammar Gaddafi’s government was toppled. But while in captivity of the traffickers in a prison camp, his purpose was rather rekindled. He shaved hairs for his captors and other victims with a comb and blade in his hand.
In a circumstance that seemed to have been predestined, Jimmy Ofuoyan and his acquaintances escaped from their captors and made a treacherous voyage to Italy, where he first stayed in Sicily at a reception centre called LAPISS (Laboratorio per le Aree Protette Italiane e lo Sviluppo Sostenibile), in Abruzzo, before he was later moved to a camp. In the camp, he made himself useful, practiced his trade by moving around to give people haircut.
Afterwards, Jimmy Ofuoyan began to find his way into the core of the Italian society and his craft made way for him. Celebrities, footballers, entertainers and artistes became obsessed with him because of his expertise on the job. The 360Kuts, also known as Khalilimages CEO won the ‘Blurriest Fastest Fade Technique Barber Battle’ against other hairstylists and barbers in his community, where he worked for several years in Italy.
In an interview, he spoke about how he rose to the top with the company.
“It happened when I had the opportunity to offer a haircut to a player from the Pescara Football Club. Being the first migrant and foreigner in my state to achieve such recognition in the hairstyling industry was a game-changer. The experience brought attention to my work and attracted influential personalities and football stars to my Instagram account. It was a turning point that catapulted my career and gave me a platform to showcase my skills to a broader audience,” he said.
Jimmy Ofuoyan is also a digital content entrepreneur. With social media playing a key role in his rise to the pinnacle of his career, the businessman, who made history as the first migrant from his state to have made grand achievements as a migrant, provides unique haircut videos, Vlogs, lifestyle videos.
