Fly Ty
Master Barber & Instructor
Craft, discipline, and the business behind the chair.
Our story
A shop culture, built as a school.
The mission
Provide a hands-on education that encourages individuality and creative freedom, in a room that still feels like a shop. Educators and staff arm students with the tools of entrepreneurship, wealth management, and community service — so graduates can focus on becoming barbers who last.
Paramount Barber Academy is a William Henry school, opening in Gastonia in Fall 2026. It sits in a lineage of craftspeople who believed in hard work, hospitality, and using their hands to serve others well.
The faculty come from the chair, not from a catalog. Justin Marlow, a Gastonia native and licensed master barber, built Gaston County’s first barber school in 2018 so the county’s next generation would not have to leave home to learn the trade. He brings that same premise here: create jobs, give men and women a platform for their hands, and teach the business that keeps a shop open.
The atmosphere we are building is clean, modern, and family-friendly. Student expectation is stellar guest service — and a spirit of excellence that does not stop at the clinic floor.
The faculty
The men behind the chair
Master barbers who built their careers behind the chair — now opening the doors for the next generation in Gastonia.
Justin Marlow
Master Barber & Instructor
From the shop floor to the front of the classroom.
Fall 2026
The inaugural cohort is forming.
Applications are open now. Start yours today, or sit down with us for a private tour.