SPRING LAKE PARK, Minn. – (Dec. 21, 2017) – Rikaya Wafford is one fresh 22-year-old. With special help from her barber Jamal Rayford. He’s nicknamed “smooth” for obvious reasons.
“I feel like a new person when I leave here,” she said. “You feel smooth.”
Her cousin was the one who got her connected with Rayford.
“I used to come with her but I’d sit in the car and then one day she came back out and her haircut was so crispy… so she put me on and she was like, ‘you’ve got to come in here,’ so I came in,” Wafford said.
Once she finally got the cut, she knew.
“I had Smooth cut me and it was just so perfect, I was like, man this is so fresh,” she said.
From there, they formed a friendship.
“Man, I love being around her and she has a great personality, she’s real cool people, so she’s one of my favorite clients as well,” Rayford said
He makes sure he looks out for her, especially after what she’s been through. Wafford recalled a day that started out almost perfect.
“Like I went out to eat with my family and we went swimming, I had Bri come over, and then everything was just different, my whole life changed in a blink of an eye,” she said.
At the end of the night, Wafford and her family made their way to Pizza Luce downtown.
“So we started talking, laughing, turned around and the next thing we all knew, there were just shots flying,” Wafford said.
Laughter turned to panic and one of those shots hit Wafford, paralyzing her from the waist down.
“I like looked down and saw blood on my hand, everyone around me I just felt was in a panic and my ears were just ringing, it was like in the movies, slow motion and then everything just speeds up,” she said. “A day later, I like actually woke up, was off of the meds so I remembered I got up and they told me I was paralyzed from the waist down.”
When Rayford found out, he was in disbelief. He say a tall athletic Wafford in a wheelchair for the first time.
“It broke my heart especially, she’s a client of mine and she just left my chair like a week prior, she walked out of here and the next time she comes back she’s in a wheelchair,” he said.
He made an offer to Wafford to help her with her recovery; free haircuts for life.
“I’ll never charge her for a haircut again, she doesn’t have to ever pay for a haircut at anytime, I got her,” he said.
It’s one less thing for Wafford to worry about on the road to recovery.
“Really, I was speechless,” Wafford said. “I appreciate it the most because I do have medical expenses and I do have to get modifications for a car and things like that so to pay for a haircut every two weeks, that adds up, so it was really nice of him to do, it really showed me that our relationship is a lot more than what meets the eye,” she said. It is like a brother sister connection, like I can talk to him about stuff and he gives me real advice, he keeps it real with me, and you talk about different things when somebody’s cutting your hair.”
For Wafford, recovery has been a process that she’s ready to start champion.
“I feel my body just getting stronger everyday.” she said. “I think that it pushes me to keep going because I can see the results and I can see the progress that I’m making
And Wafford has big plans for the future.
“I’m going to walk, that’s what I see,” she said. “I see me back on my feet, there’s no doubt about it.”
Wafford’s plans are as big as seeing the world and as simple as doing the everyday things most people take for granted.
“I’m really trying to get into traveling,” she said. ‘That’s going to be one of the first things I do when I can walk again and feel and put my toes back in the sand, I have a lot of plans for when I get back up.”
Wafford isn’t letting anything get in her way, and Rayford is going to be right there to make sure she’s fresh.
“There’s a reason that I’m still here, there’s something that God wants me to do, like I have a mission and I’m going to go after it, I’m going to do what I have to do to get to where I want to be.”
