BUFFALO, N.Y. — Damar Hamlin is just one of the guys when he enters Signature Cutz on Main Street in Buffalo. It's where he gets his hair dreaded on top with a fade on the side and a signature point on the back.
Barber and owner Kenny Harris, like many across America, shed a tear when Hamlin was taken off the football field in an ambulance during Monday Night Football.
They met when Hamlin was a rookie.
"One of my other barbers met him at the mall and was like come on by the shop and he ended up coming by the shop and he's been here ever since," Harris said.
The two formed a bond because they both attended Pitt.
If Hamlin isn't at the shop, he'll go to the barber's home for service, and when he's there, Harris said "he likes to go and hang out with the neighbors, play with the kids, he's just a good guy."
Harris calls Hamlin a "trendsetter. He's just a good guy, a good kid, he works hard, he's a hard worker."
What he has learned from Hamlin is that the 24-year-old is all about family and community.
"He loves his parents," Harris noted how Hamlin's mom is at games and his dad is always in his ear because he wants his son to succeed.
The city of Buffalo has experienced a lot of pain from a mass shooting targeting black people to a deadly blizzard, yet Harris said Hamlin is all about "building up the community."
"Damar Hamlin represents Buffalo, he's going to keep pushing, he's going to keep fighting," said the barber calling the player "D Ham."