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College senior Collin Williams’ father used to cut his hair. And when Williams was 15, his father passed the scissors to the next generation — literally.

“One day, he finished cutting my hair and turned to me and said, ‘Now give me a haircut,’” Williams said.

“I gave a pretty good haircut the first time too,” he added.

Williams continued to hone his abilities by giving haircuts to young kids at his church.

And when those skills came to Penn — where Williams quickly discerned a need for affordable haircuts — “Cold Cuts” was born.

Despite having no formal training, Williams has been running a haircutting service out of his room in DuBois College House since the second semester of freshman year.

“I saw a definite need for reasonably priced haircuts for freshmen,” he said. “Paying $20 is a lot of money for a haircut you may not like.”

At $10 for a haircut (and some styles as low as $5), Williams offers the cheapest haircut on Penn’s campus. Even the least expensive cut at the Jean Madeline Aveda Institute on 40th and Chestnut will run a person $12.

When he started out, Williams gave out eight free haircuts, hoping to ease any fears or skepticism about a student barber.

But four years later, his experience is no longer a concern.

Isaiah Greene, an Engineering senior, is a regular customer of Williams’.

“When I’m in Philadelphia, I go to him,” he said. “He has the same professional equipment, the same setup, everything.”

Williams purchased much of his equipment from beauty shops in New York or found better deals online.

And he has even tackled the sometimes nightmarish task that is the female haircut.

“It’s not my expertise, and to be honest, it was a little intimidating at first,” he admitted. “[But with] the emerging trend of shorter female hair … by Rihanna, I have been seeing females with shorter cuts.”

This year, Collins applied his skills to a charitable cause: solving the perennial freshman dilemma of where to get their hair trimmed after moving to campus — the same question he confronted in his first year.

He made their decision a little easier by offering free cuts during New Student Orientation.

The act of kindness also served to build his own business. In hopes of replenishing several of his regular customers who graduated this past year, Williams decided to start a Facebook event and run the promotion.

With plans to earn a Ph.D. in education after graduation this spring, Williams does not know if he will continue to cut hair “but it has deemed itself a really beneficial talent,” he said. And it morphed from a hobby into a necessary source of income once his financial package changed.

“There is potential to continue to do so if I’m in a five-year graduate program as a sort of side hustle,” he added.

While Williams aspires to work on educational policy on a national level, he admits that he likes the sound of one day opening his own barbershop.

“A barbershop is not in my immediate plans,” he said, but added, “I have considered running [one] in my retirement.”

Even after he graduates, though, Williams is confident the Class of 2014 will have access to cheap and quality cuts once they arrive on campus.

“There have been a few other students who have shown interest in the business, and an apprenticeship is something I plan on developing in the middle of this semester,” he said.