Crown History

Roberto Palmer, whom most of you know as (crown the barber) was born in Charleston, South Carolina. At the age of 5, him and his single mother moved to Columbia, South Carolina. At age 15, one of his neighborhood friends came to him with a pair of clippers asking him to cut his hair. With no barber experience, he decided to cut his hair. He cut it down low and even. When he was finished, his friend was very satisfied; so satisfied that he asked him to put a design in his head that said Lee. The design was dedicated to someone named Lee, whom was one of their childhood friends that got killed at a party a couple years prior. He decided to take a risk and deliver the request although he wasn’t too confident in the outcome of the design.  However, unbeknownst to him, his friend was satisfied with the cut. His friend then went outside and told everybody who cut his hair. This was the birth of people starting to request for him to cut their hair, although he passed on the opportunity at the time because he wasn’t confident enough to be consistent with it. 

 Moreover, there was a pivotal turn in Roberto’s life which happened when he turned 17. He got in trouble with the law and was fighting a couple cases. The odds were against him. At this time, he had to figure out what he was going to do with his life. One day, a teacher by the name of Mrs.Thurmond pulled him to the side and asked him what he was going to do once he leaves school. He really didn’t have an answer to her question, however, he told her “maybe I’ll start cutting hair”. She took that and said “let’s see what we can do”. Once they evaluated where he was at academically, they discovered he did not have enough credits to graduate. They decided to sit down and write out a plan for his life after school which consisted of: Attain his GED, attend barber school, get his barber license and start working at a barbershop. This plan that was laid out for him seemed far-fetched and unreachable. However, he woke up one day and decided to buy a set of clippers, go on YouTube, and learn the basics of barbering. Once he learned all that he needed to know to begin, he started cutting hair in the neighborhood. 

 Once he left school for good he was back into the streets getting into trouble with the law and was put on 3 years state probation.  So he went to get his GED and got a job at a temp service. He worked there for about 10 months until he found a job working at Captain D’s. After working there for six months he realized that he didn’t wanna work at a fast food restaurant for the rest of his life. Once he established that wasn’t what he wanted to do, he picked the clippers back up. One of his friends came to him and told him that a barbershop was having on the job training(OTJ) which will help him get his barber license. So he went to the barbershop and talked to James Strothers (Pup), who is the owner of Pups Razor Cuts about starting the OTJ program. He gave him the first opportunity to work and learn in a barbershop. After achieving his barber license, he transferred to a barbershop named Brisons barber and beauty, owned by Lester Woods. In 2015, he established TopOfTheCrown as his represented brand. He worked at Brisons for a year and began to want a drastic change in his life. He made the decision to move to Atlanta Georgia.  2016, he packed his things got on the road and headed his way to Georgia. He was only 24 years old. Once he arrived, he started working at a franchise barbershop called Clipper Kings. After a year, he was presented with the opportunity to manage one of the locations and he accepted the offer. Once a year went passed of managing that location, he was presented with another opportunity within the same company to start up and manage a fourth location they were opening. 

 After being there for a while, he had the urge that it was time to push his brand to another level. August of 2019, he opened TopOfTheCrown studios, which is a one chair studio intimate for his clients and a great opportunity for ownership. Unfortunately, the year 2020 has been a rough year for the country and for a lot of small business. It has affected us greatly, but with God’s grace, TopOfTheCrown still stands and is better than ever.