Female barber from Merrick to be featured in commercial starring LeBron James

Jay Rodriguez of Merrick says she thought she stumbled upon a spam direct message on Instagram searching for a female barber

News 12 Staff

Dec 24, 2021, 1:28 AM

Updated 1,024 days ago

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A Merrick woman’s skills as a barber is now bringing her national spotlight.
Jay Rodriguez of Merrick says she thought she stumbled upon a spam direct message on Instagram searching for a female barber.
“I didn’t think it was real, I thought it was a joke at first,” Rodriguez says.
The barber at Hair Magicians in Wantagh took a chance, sent in a demo and was chosen to be in a commercial for Ruffles Potato Chips which also stars NBA star LeBron James.
The commercial officially launches on Christmas Day, but a preview has already been released.
Rodriguez has been specializing in men’s haircuts for four years and says it was hard to build her way up in a male-dominated profession at first. She says more females are in the field now.
She says it was “really cool” being in the commercial but she has social anxiety so that made the experience a little harder.
“I get shy sometimes looking at myself, but really looking at the video and the concept of it, it was really cool and the music they chose for it,” Rodriguez says.
Despite her nerves, Rodriguez says she is open to doing more acting or commercials.