Summary of Jimmy’s story so far:
Jimmy was a teenager from Benin City who fled poverty with no passport or plan. Libya nearly killed him; he was tortured, starved, and sold multiple times, but he survived. He crossed the Mediterranean after his boat capsized and made it to Italy, where years of refugee camps, rejections, and homelessness followed. A forgotten tax slip from a short farm job saved him from deportation and gave him papers.
With a clipper and a now found motivation, he built a name cutting hair in living rooms and streets until one footballer became his first celebrity client. From there, 360Kuts was born, a brand built from hunger, hope, and hustle.
Catch up on the previous part here: Part 12: How a Nigerian teen trafficked through Libya became a celebrity barber in Europe
As soon as the call ended, Jimmy screamed.
He called his friends. He spammed his group chats. He sent the screenshots to everyone in his contact list. “Rhuigi just called me. Rhude just called me!” His phone was blowing up. Some people didn’t believe it. Until he sent the proof.
Then he called his business partners.
They didn’t believe it either. Not at first. Until the screenshots landed. And then, mid-call, they started shouting in Italian, “Oh mio Dio! Oh mio Dio!” (Oh my God!)
They didn’t hesitate. “Close the shop. Go. Go now.”
Jimmy rushed home. Packed his bag and tried to catch a flight, but it was too late. So he jumped on a train.
But when he finally arrived in Lake Como, there was a Sprinter van parked outside the station. And standing at the platform was a man holding an iPad, glowing in the night, with one name written on it: 360Kuts.
And in that moment, after all the deserts and detours, the train station floors, bland meals, and court rejections, Jimmy knew, this wasn’t a dream and this wasn’t temporary. He was blown!
Inside the venue, Jimmy got to work. Rhuigi introduced him to the crew, and Jimmy fixed the ruined cuts. His brother’s hair first, then the other models. He cleaned them up with sharp fades, clean tapers, surgical lines. He wasn’t there to network or smile for the camera—he came to deliver. And he did.
That night, Jimmy took pictures with Rhuigi, his cousin, and other models. And that’s when he met DDG, the American rapper, and many other celebrities.
Then, standing quietly in the corner, laughing with the crew, was someone else: Khaby Lame. The most followed man on TikTok. Jimmy gave him a cut too. Khaby was impressed. Said no one had ever done his fade like that before.
And that was it. The moment that flipped everything. After that show, fashion houses started calling.
Hugo Boss. Louis Vuitton. His name started circulating in industry group chats. Agents started following. Magazines started reaching out. His work was featured in Vogue Italia.
The streets that once made him sharpen his skills with shadows and whispers now echoed his name in boardrooms and backstage suites. The brand that was once just a name on Instagram was now written in contracts, printed on invites, and embedded in the memory of every model and mogul he touched.
That night with Rhude? That was the night Jimmy Ofuoyan stopped being a hustler with clippers and became 360Kuts, the global brand.
Photo Gallery
What Comes After Survival for Jimmy?
Now that the world is beginning to know his name, you’d expect Jimmy to define success with things like money, fame, or celebrity clientele. But when I asked what success truly meant to him, he paused, then answered with the kind of calm that only comes from someone who had really, truly lived through the fire and knew what it cost to come out alive.
“Success to me is freedom,” he said.
Not just financial freedom. No. For Jimmy, success is the freedom to move. The freedom to breathe. To go wherever he wants, create what he wants, and make people feel good while doing it. After surviving the horrors of Libya and the refugee camps, Jimmy deserves that much.
“It’s also the capacity to make people feel good,” he continued. “The fact that people would trust their look into my hands is something. It’s what I could call the most successful thing ever.”
He speaks of the craft like an art form, like sacred ground. Every fade, every part, every line was intentional.
And now, with the world watching, Jimmy’s eyes are set on more than the head in front of him. He wants to give back, to inspire, to teach.
He’s already in communication with organisations in Nigeria, building youth empowerment programs to teach skills to young Africans in entrepreneurship, branding, confidence, communication, professionalism, financial literacy. The things nobody teaches, but that shape destinies.
“There’s greatness in Nigeria,” he told me. “But we need to stop chasing shortcuts. We need to sharpen the gifts already in our hands.”
Jimmy’s dream?
To launch a 360 Academy, an institution that trains young barbers and creatives—not just in how to use clippers, but in how to become a brand, how to speak, network, carry themselves, and turn pain into power.
“I want 360Kuts to be more than a barbershop,” he said. “I want it to become a global movement. Products. Training schools. Mobile shops. A name that’s known across Europe, across Africa, across the world for changing lives.”
And as much as he’s achieved already, he’s not even close to done.
He wants to return home to see family and walk the streets of his country as someone who came back with something to give. He wants to feel the energy of his people, be welcomed, and remind Nigeria that no matter where you start, your story can become something beautiful.
He told me, through laughter and a little choking up, “Anna, I want to feel that moment where people say, ‘Welcome home, Jimmy. You’re one of us.’ I want to sit with people and share my story.”
360Kuts is no longer just the name of a barber. It’s the story of a boy who saw pain and carved out purpose. It’s the journey of a refugee who became a creative entrepreneur. It’s the movement of a Nigerian kid who found his weapon in a blade and his purpose in a fade, and now holds space for others to believe in themselves and be inspired.
Jimmy Ofuoyan’s story isn’t ending. It’s still becoming.
