Víctor Martínez, from the ham boner at ElPozo to the hairdresser at Carlos Alcaraz: prices €13

Víctor went from being a ham boner in ElPozo to being the hairdresser of tennis player Carlos Alcaraz. The key to his professional success was training and working until he had enough experience and the cash to be able to take a risk has undertake A business which I had been dreaming of for years: Victor Barbier. A gentlemen’s hairdressing salon, located on Calle Mayor in El Palmar: the Murcian neighborhood to which the Top 3ATP This brought him worldwide fame.

“I started with this of be hairdressereither like a hobby because I worked at ElPozo. I got up at four thirty in the morning to work, and when I got home in the afternoon, I would cut my friends’ hair in the bathroom with a clipper that I had bought,” recalls Víctor Manuel Martínez Marín (El Palmar, 1995). “Since I was 17, I have always had this The profession caught my attention and there came a time when I said to myself that I was going to focus only on this subject. So I enrolled in an academy to get the official title.”

Later, he took courses in Granada, Valencia… He began to gain experience in the hairdressing sector, which had a tattoo studio, then he was hired in a hairdressing salon in El Palmar and finally he created his business: Víctor Barber. “I had to invest more than 6,000 euros.” A not insignificant sum for a teenager who, to earn a living, was also able to leave a season to install solar panels in the middle of the Atacama Desert in Chile.

Víctor has built a professional career as a men’s barber “for nine years”, but what he never imagined is that one day he would be asked to make an appointment to cut the hair of a certain Carlos Alcaraz. “I met him when I saw him in town, although we had no relationship because he is 21 and I am 29”, as Víctor confesses, in an interview he gives to EL ESPAÑOL in his barbershop, whose decoration is presided over by a few bulldog statues and a photo of him with the tennis player, with the following autograph: ‘For the best barber! With much love for Victor’.

-How did you become Carlos Alcaraz’s barber?

– Winner: ANDeither I had as a client to José Ramón, one of Carlitos’ best friends, and then Álvaro started coming, he older brother of the tennis player. One day, when Carlos was coming back from Miami, his friend José Ramón wrote to me to ask: “How are you going next week to cut Álvaro and me’s hair? ‘Hey! Carlitos wants to cut it too.

This conversation took place in April 2023, just after Carlos Alcaraz fell in the semi-finals of the Miami Masters 1000 –against the Italian Jannik Sinner-. It goes without saying that Víctor made room for the athlete in his diary. “I called my mother and my sisters to tell them,” he recalls nostalgically. “I knew it would happen one day.”

– What was the first time a world tennis star sat in his barber chair?

– Winner: (Laughs) The first day I cut his hair was April 5, 2023. I was very nervous. In fact, I always start with scissors, but my hands were shaking and I started by inserting the clippers to gain comfort. Carlos noticed it, but from the beginning he gave me a lot of confidence. That time I wondered if he would come back, if he would like it, and his friend José Ramón told me not to worry. Obviously he loved it because he keeps coming back.

He also had clarifications with his barber or hairdresser, depending on your point of view, by offering him a Babolat racket, with a signed handle and a signed tennis ball.Carlos t.has peitherr It’s the habit of going to my hairdresser, i.e.time visit El Palmar after a tournament“, Victor points out gratefully. “People usually come here to ask me if he’s in town because they know that one of the first things he does when he gets back is get a haircut. When he comes to the barbershop, he greets the customers, asks them how they are and starts talking to everyone. “That’s one more.”

Although Víctor leaves the door curtains and the window drawn, to avoid revealing that the tennis player is in his place, sometimes “fifty people” have gathered at the door, “waiting an hour to greet Carlitos and take pictures.” The proximity that demonstratesI crack The Tennis World Cup is not an isolated eventbecause in addition to going to a neighborhood hair salon to get his hair cut for 13 euros, like any other teenager, it is also common to see him having breakfast at Confitería La Gloria de Andrés Mármol.

Such gestures are priceless as an advertising campaign for small businesses in El Palmar.”For us, It is a source of pride that Carlos continues to do the same things. and go to the stores in your city like before being number 1 in tennis”, REMARK Victor Barber’s owner. “He usually walks around town.”“He is not an arrogant or arrogant person.”

– What does it mean to have Carlos Alcaraz as a client?

– Victor Martinez: It helped me a lot in the hair salon. On several occasions Carlos Alcaraz has shared images of me cutting his hair and then new clients come in. Many people came who viewed your Instagram. The customerTHE it has been multiplied by two or for three.

Now youengo waiting list. Every week I cut his 65 year old’s hair at 75 years old people And tengo do overtime of Monday to Friday. Sometimes I leave at eleven thirty in the evening.. There are people who have made the road, from Torrevieja or Archena, just to have the same haircut dAnd KarlArticleYou.

– How is the haircut? ATP Top 3?

– cprisoner that CAlso changes the traditional aesthetic of tennis. He is an athlete who makes risky and youthful cuts. Currently, a medium fade: A very close gradient and leaves a mini toupeehairpiece. This year he has only changed his hairstyle once, when he shaved his head to play in Argentina because it was very hot there.

– What is the profile of the client who asks you to have the same haircut as Carlos Alcaraz?

-Leither They ask a lot from 10 to 17 year olds. They tell me: ‘Do me the cortea by Carlitos.

This week, Víctor’s schedule is once again full after a video of him circulated on Instagram and X [antes Twitter]where this barber appears walking through the streets of Valencia, for enter the hotel where Carlos Alcaraz is stayingwith the aim of cutting his hair. This “VIP service” took place just hours before the tennis player from El Palmar faced Tomas Machac, in one of the matches that Spain won against the Czech Republic to qualify for the long-awaited Final 8 of the Davis Cup.

– Was Carlos nervous before the match?

-Victor: It was quiet. I had his speaker in the hotel room and I told him to put on some music while I cut his hair. It was an experience because I met Juan Carlos Ferrero and then Carlos invited me to watch the Davis Cup match against the Czech Republic.

The day was unforgettable for Víctor. “It was the first time I left El Palmar to cut his hair, but it won’t be the last because He is a person who does not have time, he travels a lot for competitions. and I am delighted to do it: that is why I am his barber”, reflects proudly this entrepreneur, after traveling to the city of Turia, to serve a client who has helped him a lot to promote his business thanks to the fame that the tennis player has.

– Do you consider yourself a hairdresser or a barber?

– Winner: More barber than hairdresser because my business is to cut men’s hair, for 13 euros, and to groom their beards, for a price of 5 to 8 euros. Although I also take care of children and in the summer I also do dyeing.

– What do you think is the key to getting Carlos Alcaraz to entrust you with his precious hair?

– I treat him like any other customer. cprisoner what ishas It’s one of the things he loves about coming here. cut your hair with me. I ask him about his travels now.I He likes to talk about football a lot: Real Madrid matches and the Spanish national team. I think so.And He feels relaxed, can let go and behave like Carlos.