JUST WHAT THE DR. ORDERED

By Fraser Forsey

Barbering isn’t just about cutting hair—it’s about connection, hustle, and building something bigger than yourself. And if there’s one barber who’s mastered all three, it’s Dr Tama.

Growing up in Otara, South Auckland, Tama didn’t have it easy. But what he did have was a drive to level up, a passion for selfcare, and a knack for the game. From learning to cut his mates’ hair to running a full studio out of his garage during lockdown, he turned a side hustle into a career, proving that with skill, hard work, and smart branding, anything’s possible.

Now, with a booming business, a massive social media following, and some big things in the works—including presenting at EXPO4BARBERS— Tama is sharing the blueprint that helped him go from grinding in his garage to becoming one of the most talked-about barbers in the industry. In this Q&A, we get into his journey, and his advice for barbers looking to build their personal brand.

Tell us about you...

My name’s Tama. I’m 25 in August and I grew up in southeast Auckland in a place called Otara which is widely considered ‘the hood’ by many Aucklanders. Grew up poor, single mum for most of childhood. Middle child of 3 boys.

How did you discover barbering?

Always been a man of self-care. I like looking after myself, having a clean haircut, shave, eyebrows etc. I thought having the skill of cutting my mates hair was too good to pass up. I ended up asking my barber at the time to recommend some tools to get started, he took me to go buy them and the rest is history.

Tell us your barbering journey to date?

At 19, I was working a warehouse job but wanted a real career. I applied for the police, thinking it was a ‘safe’ option, but after failing my third attempt, I saw it as God’s way of telling me I needed to follow barbering. I enrolled at Cut Above Academy, starting two months late during the 2020 lockdown. Despite being behind, I caught up in two weeks, finished the course in just over three months, and landed a job—after exaggerating my experience. I worked there for 1.5 years on an hourly wage, but even with 20 extra hours a week cutting in my garage, it wasn’t enough.

I moved to my mate’s shop to learn the business side as a sole trader. It was a tough transition. My old clientele didn’t follow, and some days, I made just $12 after tax. I worked harder—first in, last out, constantly on my phone promoting myself. Then another lockdown hit on my 21st birthday, shutting down the shop. Against the rules (and my mum’s wishes), I kept cutting in my garage, starting with a few clients a week. Within weeks, I was running a full solo studio, doing 50 cuts a week, with some clients paying hundreds just to secure a spot.

This was when my social media took off. I refined my services and became known for quality, consistency, good chat, and being ALWAYS AVAILABLE—I’d take bookings as late as 2am.

After lockdown, going back to the shop for longer hours and less money made me realise I needed my own space. After saving up, I built my private studio in my garage and went full-time in Nov 2022. In my first week, I made more than I ever had, but I knew I could do better. I doubled down on social media, seeing other barbers post content and thinking, I can do this way better. That’s when Doctor Tama was born—a name inspired by the running joke that I ‘perform surgery’ on my clients. The rest is history.

What do you love about it?

I owe everything I have to this craft. The actual practicality of barbering is good and the business experience I’ve gained from it is priceless but the people, connections & network I get from it are some of the best things I’ve taken from it. I’ve met lifelong friends, built strong business partnerships and connections and it has opened doors that I would’ve never known about. Let alone the personal development & challenge I’ve had throughout this journey. It has completely forced me to grow as a man, person, businessman and artist. It pushed me out of my comfort and that’s a gift in itself.

You have built an amazing personal brand on TikTok and Insta, through content creation and huge following on your social platforms; can you tell us all about this?

My journey on social media has been up and down. My favourite way to think about it is by comparing it to bamboo. (Stay with me) When bamboo is planted, it can barely be seen for the first few years as it builds extensive root systems underground. After 5 years it explodes 90 feet in the air within 6 weeks. Since I was 15, I wanted to do social media as a job/career pathway. I feel like I was made for it. But when I finished high school, I felt like I had nothing to offer the world from a content perspective.

In other words, I was scared to start and afraid of what people would think. And so, I worked on myself and went through my life over the next few years trying to figure who I am as a man and what I stood for. Falling into barbering helped that and broadened my perspective. I studied marketing and social media content relentlessly, paid for courses out of my own pocket, invested in mentors to learn and still didn’t start.

It took me years to start. And after I did, it was the closest thing to real life overnight success I have ever experienced and for good reason. It worked out this way because I took all that time to build up myself, find out who I really am and what matters to me.

Using everything I learnt about marketing and branding I marketed myself. Raw, authentic and unfiltered me. The people of social media either like it or they don’t but people follow people. Change that takes years to build up before it happens all at once in the same way bamboo grows.

You are going to be presenting at EXPO4BARBERS, can you tell us all about this?

I will be presenting my Social Media Blueprint; I’ll be sharing my story and strategies that I used to leverage social media to grow my personal brand and get fully booked. I’ll also be teaching how barbers can do exactly the same.

Can you tell us about your free community and the groups you have created?

The Creators Vault is a free community full of like-minded people all with the same goal in mind. To create engaging content that builds an audience so that they can use social media as a means of business. It’s basically a place where I teach everything, I have learnt to give people everything they need to capitalise on the digital gold mine that is Social Media.

It gives completely free and practical advice to a wide range of people from someone that has never posted before to someone who just wants to elevate their game. We also offer a paid version that covers more in-depth strategy, viewer psychology and monetisation too, to fully equip anyone with everything they need to be successful on social media.

What is one key piece of advice that you can offer barbers who are wanting to build their personal brand?

As corny as it sounds, be yourself and do you. Your biggest point of difference is that you are yourself, literally 1 of 1. So why copy anyone else. Focus on who you are and what you stand for, your content will follow suit, and your audience will come to you.

We understand that you are going to be doing some work with the boys from Trybe. How do you see that brand aligning to yours and what drew you to their culture?

Just like myself and the brand I’ve built over the past year, Trybe is all about innovating the industry and giving back. And that is exactly what drew me to them. I like who they are behind the brand and what they’re trying to do with the company and our visions for the direction of the industry align very much so. Very excited to see where this goes.

Any other exciting plans for 2025?

I have a few things in the works, and I can’t say too much but I have a handful of very exciting projects on ways.

Instagram @doctortama TikTok @itsdrtama