On a brisk winter day in Wisconsin, hair falling to the floor, scissors in hand, Ted Berry rambles on about philosophical matters as he cuts the hair of one of his clients.​

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Berry, 71, might be just known as a  local hairdresser to the younger generation, but has a surprisingly interesting past.

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Born in Southern Ireland in 1949, Berry grew up with 8 other siblings, in a two room, two bedroom, and one bathroom house. They also had a large backyard where they would grow their own food and house their chickens.

 

However, their family grew up in a difficult area under poor economic circumstances.

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“It was a tough place, because any place that is deprived, there is some tough people there, so it was difficult in terms of teenage gangs and stuff like that,” Berry says, “It was difficult as a child, we always had enough to eat, but we didn't have extra money for a car or nothing like that.”

 

“We didn’t know we were lacking for anything,” he adds, “the education was space, but I left school at 13.”

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Berry's first job was at age 11, where he would deliver milk on a horse and carriage. On the weekend he would deliver bread.

 

After dropping out of school he worked in a glass factory working 48 hours a week. He was not even 14 years old yet.

 

“Most of my family did the same, nobody went to college,” Ted said, “however [all my siblings] did well, and we eventually moved out of the place.”

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After a few years of glass work, he decided to go back to school where he tried to get the Irish equivalent to a  high school diploma. However, he describes it as very difficult and on par with college courses.

 

He was thinking of going to med school until  Berry came to America on a J-1 Visa.

 

“And I loved America, so I stayed,” he said, “so I didn't go back and all of that went out the window”

 

Eventually he would return to Ireland, where he started a short term antique business that he ditched. At 27 he started an apprenticeship under a hairdresser and eventually branched out into his own salons, something he did until he was 43.

 

Berry then decided to come back to the United States in the 1990s, “The economy [in Ireland] was so bad,” Berry said,”it was just very difficult to see any future, 20 percent unemployment is a lot!”

 

Once in America, Berry created a successful hair coloring product called Hair Color to Go. He noticed that everyone was so busy so he wanted to create an affordable product that gave the same quality results from the comfort of your own home instead of going out to a hairdresser.

 

“I mix the color in the developer and you start parting you hair and you start dabbing it on,” says Sharron, a customer of Berry, “you kinda always get it right, because it so easy to do.”

 

In 1995 a friend of his put an advertisement on the front page of the women's section in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Which resulted in a boom of calls and orders.

 

At its most successful point in his business, he had branches in Texas, Florida, Madison, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

 

“It was very crazy,” says Linda, Ted's ex-wife, “trying to run the business out of our house, it was quite hectic.”

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Tragically in 2016, Berry was diagnosed with lung cancer, and was told that he would die that year.

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This was not his first experience with death. As a baby, Berry was given "Last Rites", which is a Catholics ceremony the people  receive at the end of their lives, four times. 

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Just like how he proved those “Last Rites” wrong, he proved this cancer death expectancy wrong too.

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“Even though I was intellectually scared and it took awhile for my head around it,” he said, “I never despaired, or completely intuitively felt that it was going to kill me.”

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The cancer has gone through phases of going and coming over the last few years. Berry looked to his sister for support, who was very religious and had trust that he wasn’t going to die, which helped reassure him.

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Berry believes in a god and and after life but has a dislike of institutional religion.

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“I tried to go back to a church here,” he said, “they were talking about this and talking about that and condemning people, ya know. So I just walked out. I’m not listening to that.” 

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Opposite of his experiences with the church, Berry says the cancer made him more empathetic of others. He recognizes that everyone is suffering.

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“I realized that life is precious and this existence, even though I believe in god, this is the only one I know. By extension I have come to the conclusion that what I see in others is myself,” he said, ”So if I'm critiquing them, or criticizing them, or seeing something in them, it's something in me. So I never do that, particularly after the cancer.” 

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A man who has faced death, decided to grow from the experience rather than give up. You can still find Ted chopping away at his one person salon in Brookfield, Wisconsin.