While all haircuts are important, the one Billy Porter got late last week was even more critical: It was his last trim before tonight’s Tony Awards. “I just need a trim,” he tells stylist Valjean Guerra, crunching his hair with both hands to show the textured look he hopes to maintain. “I want to keep the same shape.”

Porter, nominated for best actor in a musical for his role as a drag queen in Kinky Boots, then settled into a leather chair in a chic Harlem salon for an hour of pampering before a cast album party and another grueling show.

It was nine days before the Tonys — the perfect amount of time to wash and trim what he calls his “chunky thing.” If done too close to the awards, his haircut might look forced.

“I like it to breathe a little bit. I don’t want it to look so clean or too perfect,” he says. “I like it to look clean but not like I got my hair cut yesterday. You know what I mean? Hair is actually a little bit better when it’s a little dirtier.”

Smiling nearby is Brenda Braxton, a Tony-nominated actress who owns the luxury men’s spa BBraxton where Porter sits. A veteran of C hicago and Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Braxton has known Porter for decades. After comparing foot pains and calluses, she confesses that she’s giddy that people are finally recognizing his talent.

“Very seldom do you get people who know what it’s about and respect the business,” she says. “We don’t always get it when we think we’re going to get it but we get it. He’s paid his dues. It’s his time.”

LOSING HIS WAY

Making sure his Tony look is just right isn’t just about vanity for Porter. He’s also showing respect. The Tony Awards in 1982 changed his life as an 11-year-old boy.

He grew up in the Pentecostal Church in Pittsburgh and “it always felt like there was a calling on my life.” He had dabbled a bit in theater, but never connected to traditional Broadway music. He had a higher goal.

“When you grow up in the church, the only translation in that insular world that people understand is preaching. You’re supposed to be a minister. So I was going down that path and then I saw the Tonys.”

On the telecast, Porter watched Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine and other cast members from Dreamgirls perform It’s All Over and And I’m Telling You (I’m Not Going).

What he saw were beautiful African-Americans in unbelievable costumes singing powerful songs. He was hooked. “It was a moment where I realized, ‘Oh, my ministry is that. A version of that.”’

He was named the 1992 male champion on “Star Search,” graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and showed up in New York 23 years ago with a voice that could break glass. Then he lost his way.

“I played my trump card,” he says. His voice was amazing — a “blow-the-roof-off-the-joint-and-stop-the show kind of thing.” To land jobs, he would play that card, assuming he could then show off his other gifts.

He earned Broadway roles, Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Grease and Smokey Joe’s Cafe among them. But proving he was more than just a singing voice proved difficult.