Can a Haircut Change Your Life? | The Story of Us

2m read

·Nov 11, 2024

I'm in London to meet Joshua Coombes. He's a hairdresser. And he believes small acts of love can make a big impact.

Joshua hopes he can help the homeless, not by offering them money or food but by giving them a haircut. The reason I started cutting hair on the street, initially, was actually the magnitude of the problem, like seeing how big this problem is in each city. It's really hard to know what to do about that.

And I think it was from that feeling I had to impact today. I had to do something positive to make someone smile. And realize that even if you can't solve the problem, actually it's OK to just do your own thing. And for me, that's hairdressing. I love what I do, so it's a great way to be able to give someone confidence.

When was the last time you had a haircut? In November last year. So January, February. Five months to March, April. How did you come to be homeless, Stuart?

I broke my hip and they stopped my benefits. At the time, I was like, that's stupid. And involved with drugs and things. I didn't really care. And next thing, [inaudible]. That was 24th of January, 2016. And I've been homeless since.

You see lots of things with homelessness. And there's lots of stereotypes. And really, what I do is try and humanize this issue. Because as I said, this problem is so big, I think when you bring it down to one person and tell the story, that's a great way to start and a great way for people to understand.

For me, like one of the most amazing moments is giving someone the mirror at the end of their haircut because it's great to see someone's reaction because they might recognize someone they haven't seen for a few years. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Ta-da.

I'm 20 years younger. [inaudible] Nobody's going to recognize me. Mate, you're a new man right now.

Yeah, thank you. How do you feel? Like a new man. Like a new man. Do you recognize yourself there?

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