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Johnnyd Flores brings artistic hair styling to Historic Downtown Globe

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Walking into the funky loft that houses Dominion Cutting Co. Hair Salon on Mesquite Street in downtown Globe, patrons might be struck by the seemingly random collection of historic memorabilia or the large-screen television showing random music videos.

But the proprietor of the salon, 29-year-old Johnnyd Flores, a native son of the Globe-Miami area, is anything but random. Flores is a focused businessman, accomplished hair stylist and actor with the Copper Cities Community Players.

Flores was born and raised in Miami, attended Miami High School and represents the fourth generation of a long-time mining family.

He’s been in the Globe-Miami area his entire life, except for a brief period living in Chandler where he met his wife Erika Flores — known as Moqi to her friends and first-grade students at Copper Rim Elementary School — in a yoga class.

But he knew early on that he wanted to do something different with his life and eventually found he had a talent for cutting hair.

“When I didn’t have a job, I needed to do something,” Flores said. “I thought that charisma and good looks was all it took, but then the recession came around [in 2009].”

At the time, he was working at the mines for a local contractor and trying to break into the modeling business.

“I realized I didn’t have a future [in modeling] and gave it up when reality set in,” he said.

On the advice of a friend, a high-end hairdresser who told him he could make a decent living as a hair stylist, Flores picked up the tools of the trade and dove in.

“I really didn’t have anything going for me, so I decided to try it,” he said. “At first, I was going toward the barber end of it.”

He earned his cosmetology certificate — breaking his wrist in a long board accident halfway through cosmetology school — but soon hit a niche that is allowing his horizons, as well as his business, to expand.

His career progressed through high-end salons to national hair-cutting chains in the Valley, but Flores soon became disenchanted with that aspect of his profession.

“I burned out on the cookie-cutter experience,” Flores said. “There were no solid, personal relationships with clients, and that is an important part of my work.”

He eventually relocated to Globe to help care for an ailing family member and found himself again working in the mines. But since he was bringing in a regular paycheck, Flores decided to save money to open his own shop someday.

Three years ago, Flores opened Dominion Cutting Co. on the second floor of the building at the west end of Broad Street on E. Mesquite, when the space became available in 2014.

“As soon as we saw the space, we knew it was right,” he said.

At the time, he was cutting hair for a few friends to keep his skills sharp, but was ready to dive back into the business.

So he was eventually able to get away from the mines and follow his true calling.

“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset,” he said. “And I expected to have a shop by the time I hit 30.”

But Flores is also happy to be back in the place he grew up and hopes to be at the head of a renaissance in downtown Globe. He and Moqi intend to stay for the foreseeable future.

This month, Flores expects to open his enlarged shop downstairs in the old Valley National Bank building on Broad and East Mesquite streets, bringing an anchor business to a downtown block that is in dire need of urban development.

“When I was a kid, I thought Globe sucked,” he said. “But the older I got and the more I traveled, the more I realized this is where I want to be.”