MILWAUKEE — As the Milwaukee Brewers continue their playoff run Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee barber Jose Perez Zamora is helping make sure players look ready for game day.

Zamora, the owner of Flashy Faded, has cut hair for clients ranging from everyday customers to Brewers players such as Jacob Misiorowski and William Contreras, as well as manager Pat Murphy. He said the goal is to give each client confidence when they leave the chair.

“It’s just seeing people’s faces, man, when they lit up after I turn them back to the mirror and they see a crispy cut, crispy lineup, crispy beard,” Zamora said. “That experience that we bring, it’s a unique feel.

Zamora said his barbering career began when he was 13 and his younger brother needed a haircut before a band recital. His mother did not know how to cut hair, and his father did not have the money to pay for one.

“It pretty much started out as a necessity and fun in a sense,” Zamora said. “Little brother needed a haircut to go to a band recital. I cut him and it’s wraps from there.”

Years later, Zamora was recruited to work for a world champion UFC fighter, an opportunity that helped lead to other connections and eventually to the Brewers.

Anthony Crespo, a barber and childhood friend of Zamora’s, said he has watched him grow over about 15 years. Crespo said one of Zamora’s biggest challenges has been balancing work and personal life.

“Making sure he’s functioning properly for the next day. For the next event. For the next player. For the next meeting. For his family, you know?” Crespo said.

(Spectrum News 1/Jamal James)

Crespo said he is proud of Zamora’s progress and said barbering requires steady effort because the finished work is always visible.

“You definitely have to give it maximum effort,” Crespo said. “I feel like, if you put your max into your client and your craft, I feel like you’ll get close to perfect almost every time.”

For Zamora, that work is now visible not only to clients’ families and friends, but also across baseball stadiums and to people watching the MLB playoffs on television. Still, he said he views every person who sits in his chair the same way.

“I feel like anybody that sits in the chair, they feel vulnerable,” Zamora said. “It’s a type of intimacy that you’re very close to somebody, so you build that relationship. They’re like family now, you know what I mean? They’re very, very, very down to Earth. But at the end of the day, they’re human.”

As the Brewers prepare to take on the Dodgers, Zamora said he plans to help the team carry confidence into the matchup.