A FIRST GLANCE at Ramon Husbands and one would not think he is the son of a preacher man.
In describing himself, he declares: “I am art, a creation of God, one of the greatest creators of all time, so whenever I speak of myself, I say I am a creation who creates.”
The 23-year-old uses a variety of platforms to reflect his creative skill and imagination: barbering, jewellery making, styling, designing, music, dancing and choreography. And he is not afraid to push the envelope, be it through his punky hairstyle accentuated with a dash of purple, or his taste for the avant garde.
“I was considered the weird child. I was the one person that had the weird look or had on some strange outfit in my circle at school or anywhere. Even at home I am the only person that started colouring my hair and started with these haircuts that people had not seen before,” said Husbands, son of Bishop Marlon and Susan Husbands of Sanctuary Empowerment Centre.
He says he also uses his gifts as a way of expressing himself and showing others how to.
“I believe that once I became a Christian, [God] owns me . . . if I allow Him to use me, whatever He brushes and whatever He paints on me I go with,” he said.
Husbands said he started cutting hair when he was about ten years old.
“My dad would give us [him and his three brothers] these really low, low, low haircuts. At that time fades were coming in and if you had a bald head, you would get slapped,” he recalled.
He taught himself how to cut hair and practised on his brothers and cousins. That led to him being a barber while at school.
“It became a paying hobby and I like paying hobbies.”
From there he moved on to dance, music and singing; from drums into choreography and then to fashion while in fourth form at Deighton Griffith Secondary School.
He would go on to study music at the Barbados Community College, while also doing some fashion courses. He would eventually develop his own fashion line called Black Lion Apparel, specialising in beaded jewellery.
“I was always at least three years ahead of what fashion was being worn locally,” he said.
He was baptised at 12 years old, but when he got into his teen years he started to do his own thing.
“In the beginning I wanted to be the opposite of my parents. I was a rebel . . . I did not want to be in church, I did not want to be in ministry, I did not want to be a pastor; I did not even want to sing in church,” he said.
However, he said his parents not only prayed for him, but stuck by him until God spoke to him.
“God told me if I did not stop what I was doing and focus on Him, he would take away all of the gifts I had and the things that I loved. In turn I had to acknowledge who I was born to be, both spiritually and biologically, and respect that,” he told the DAILY NATION.
He said that by age 21, he had lost interest in dance, music and singing.
“I did not know why, and I loved to dance. People asked me to dance and I just could not do it. I stopped writing and I thought, why can’t I do all the things I am good at and I remembered what God told me.”
Today, he says he has much greater appreciation for all the gifts God has placed in him.
Husbands is in the process of completing Bible school at the Bible College at Next Level Institute and will very soon be a preacher.
He said that by his example, he wants to show people that they can be everything they want to be, doing it their way and with their own expression – purple hair and all.
“I love my church. I love the mothers and fathers in the church. They understood and stayed with me and prayed with me because given how I look and what I do, I could easily slip back into the secular world. They definitely support me,” he said while at his workplace Fame The Grooming Club in Holetown, St James.
Husbands also said technology had changed, allowing Christians to adapt to the times.
“[God] allowed the Bible to go on cellphones, He allowed apps for studying, and He allowed younger churches to be built up. Times change and we should change with it. We do not change our principles – whatever we stand for will stay – but generations are coming up that need to know from their point of view how to be a Christian.” (LK)
