The Haircut

So I learned pretty much everything I need to know about how to muster enough courage to ask a girl to dance from Celeste, the angel who cut my hair in high school after 15 very sad years of an uncomfortable looking bowl cut. Celeste lifted up my self esteem, helped me juggle anxiety, depression and fear before they were talked about. She gave me street cred and she was my barber I suppose, and so I’m pretty sure this new “Deload” business of mental health trained barbers is a stellar idea. I’ve long since said physical therapists and little league coaches need this training, so why not the folks who style our hair. In fact, back in 2016, The Confess Project, founded by Lorenzo Lewis, was America’s first so-called barbershop mental health movement committed to building a culture of mental health for boys, men of color, and their families by training barbers to be mental health advocates. My own son Jack is taking to the idea starting a podcast series this fall where he’ll be interviewing Indiana Hoosier athletes as they get their haircut at Faded, a barber shop in Bloomington Indiana. - yes, talking sports and music and pop culture no doubt, but maybe getting deeper on life itself and the balance of mind and body.

I’d like to think the more things change in our culture, the more families, educators, and policy makers in this country need to think of ways to support the established value of the lost culture of people like barbers and hairdressers who know a thing or two about perseverance, about being down and getting back up, but mostly about how to talk to folks, and how to listen. Heck, those who say we are in a crisis of undersupply of psychologists and therapists may want to look to The Confess Project, Deload and mom and pops like Faded as a resource. This is not to undervalue the role of psychologists and psychiatrists but to acknowledge the potential role of people in other professions who may just have the empathy and character and patience to help someone through a tough time.

And if these new companies like Confess and Deload are looking for barbers or trainers, heck perhaps Eddie Murphy from Coming to America fame is up for the gig…can’t you hear it? “Look son, this stuff that’s got ya down with your family and work—do what Joe Louis did. He was 137 years old but took punches and he hung in there and kept fighting.”