You know what, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I'm not ashamed of where I was, where i came from, what happened in my life.
Like I said, it makes me who I am today.
Oh, I know I was looked down on like I was the dredges of society
just another little blip in the street looking for a free ride.
Some people fall on harder times than others.
Give them a moment, give them a smile, acknowledge them because that's what means the most to anybody.
Just to walk by like they're nothing; that's the worst thing you can do.
And more often than not
there is the judgment before the question.
Just acknowledge. Just give a smile. Just to nod your head, you know.
You know acknowledge the person. That is what matters. We're human. We're all human!
It was kind of the brainchild of the three of us.
There were three friends, myself, Josh & Ross, that were meeting one day at our shop
and we were talking about starting doing some cuts on the Downtown Eastside.
We always kind of thought to do something in the community,
but we kind of have had a running saying that we didn't have money or political influence so what can we really do?
So we just went out to the Downtown Eastside one day.
Packed up our clippers and went down to the Downtown Eastside and just started doing haircuts.
It was a bit surreal because it wasn't uh, you didn't expect it to feel as nice as just doing something for nothing.
I mean you work your whole career like getting paid for a day and then when you go and do a full day of work without being paid for it,
but you just get like smiles and love from it.
We've got so many people that would stand up and give us hugs and normally clients don't give you a hug after a haircut.
But when it's something they don't normally get or they've connected with you in a different way
it was really nice to see that genuine appreciation of people.
Yeah, it was a humbling thing to not now walk him up to the counter
and have him pay for something and just shake his hand.
Yeah, it was an eye-opening experience just to see that like there are no different people.
They're just people who live in a different area, the same as different areas of the city.
At first I was like oh yeah, another group. They're just going to be here for a short time cutting hair.
Years later they're still here every Sunday!
Their one day off a week and they come out to us here!
They don't have to do that but they do.
And that's what I love about these guys.
It's not a handout. It's a hand up.
It's love. It's compassion. Non-judgmental.
We're human and that's what drew me to those guys.
Not many people do take the time out to come down here
and get to know the real person.
They are oh the poorest postal code and drug overdoses and stabbings.
That didn't matter to them.
Shawna is awesome. Shawna's quite a character.
I like to call her the alpha female.
Shawna is, she'll tell you herself, she doesn't take any crap from anybody.
She's been in the Downtown Eastside for 30 years.
She's played in this park as a child.
And about a year into Street Thug Barbers,
we were starting to get so many people that knew about us and wanting to come down that we needed to create a list.
And one day she just offered. We never asked her, and she just offered to keep a list for us
and keep everything controlled.
She completes us. She she brings the authority, the humor, the organization.
She's there with the tables set up, sweeping everything before we even get there. She makes the park acceptable.
We show up and literally we just drop our tools and start cutting, and she's got music playing.
She I like to believe, she looks forward to it as much as we do.
It just felt right for me because I crave chaos that kind of environment my whole life.
Those are my friends. I've been in that environment with those people. So when I am clean and living
a sober life and whatnot I miss that environment, and I feel like I need to give back to validate for
what everything that I've been through in my life.
Or else you went through it in vain if you can't help other people with it.
A lot of people just don't have the same choices that a lot of us have.
If you are getting out of school and you need your parents to help you with a loan to get your first car or first home.
A lot of people down here don't have that.
So when we judge people based on our own previous experience, it doesn't work because we ask, "why are they on the streets?"
Well they didn't have money for school or money for rent when they got out of home.
Well this is my community,
and they come into my community and the smiles that they put on people's face
and the love and the compassion that they gave to the "down and out" and hopeless is what really
it was like okay they're not just here for show.
They're not just here to to make their cred, their credibility in the world better.
They're here for genuine to make us feel better about ourselves.
To give us an opportunity to look in the mirror and go, "Wow, I look good right on!"
And that's what really attracted me to Cam and Josh and to their Street Thug Barber movement.
Just the awesome,
awesomeness that came out of what they were doing really warmed my heart.
I've heard some people say the opposite of addiction is connection and there's a lot of truth to that no matter what
background you come from. These people have had people come and go in their lives, lie to them,
everything. So I don't think they even believed that we'd still be here
this long when we first started. I don't think we even knew we'd still be here,
but we find ourselves getting up without an alarm clock at six in the morning on Sundays to do it.
It really doesn't feel like a a main charity or anything like that. It's just you know people going
out and doing haircuts. But what I hope it does is just kind of humanize the Downtown Eastside
a little bit more because I tell everyone now that I've been there and now that I go there every week
it's a really really nice place to be. There may be a lot of poverty going on,
a lot of addiction issues, but the people in the area are amazing. And if we can kind of show
more the individual faces, more of the area that we're in, and how nice it is. And how
if we can change that perception of people and who are on the streets or not or just in need,
or change the perception of the Downtown Eastside a little bit I would love to do that.
People like in most of society have the luxury of going and getting a haircut, getting a massage,
getting something done. Having somebody in your comfort zone, some touch, talk, intimacy, and
a lot of people in the Downtown Eastside don't get that. So the haircut is about looking good, feeling good,
but it's also about the connection. The touch the talking, and we've become family with these people.
They're family to us. They're there every week like we are, and yeah whether it's genetic or not
I believe this park is all about family.
It's strange to see when people are really moved by a haircut to an extent that they are you know like giving you a great big hug or something it's
It's yeah humbling and it's amazing to see like how much it has impacted someone when it's just a
haircut to me i do it every day.
It's one big happy family and i think the impact that they're giving people is like you look, look at how good you look. Believe in yourself. You can do this.
It gives them a self-esteem to say, "hey this guy's believes in me, this guy thinks I'm great, this guy thinks I'm cool,
you know maybe i should start" and that's the kind of impact that they have.
Is the self-esteem, the self-worth, you're worth it. You know you got this, go you got it, you know.
That's the impact that these guys do in the community, and that's what they do for me too.
I think the baseline of what we do is and what we tell people to do and live is just to pay it forward.
You know be kind to your neighbors. I tell clients to bake an apple pie for their neighbors.
You don't have to do anything specifically for homeless people or people in need but just to
to pay life forward and connect with different people and have conversations and smile at people
and really realize the community that is around you and be involved in it
and be you know with other people and that's all we're doing with Street Thug.
It doesn't mean it's anything different because it's for homeless people or for the city that we're in or what we're doing.
It's just paying you know respect to your neighbors.
It's kind of self-serving really. You know it feels so good so I want to keep doing it. It's yeah and that's why we tell people
to just come out and experience it before you criticize or before you ask any questions
because you'll get it. You do something and expect something in return it's business
and if you don't it's kindness, and that's why street thug barbers is definitely an act of kindness.
I don't think Cam and Josh and them really realize the impact that they they've given. They I mean
the connections they've made. Like they're not seen in the neighborhood as much as I am and
oh those barbers are cool you know and the feedback that I hear on a daily basis is sweet.
It's so simple you know you do good things and good things come back to you.
We just wanted to cut hair on the street and show photos of what we did to inspire others to do the same.
And that's working around the world now, and it's very organic so i feel we don't want to change it.
I don't plan on stopping I don't think at all for the rest of my life and as long as I'm in the city
I don't see myself not being able to go down to my community on the weekends.
You may be feeling crappy about yourself because you have an addiction or you're addicted to alcohol or to
pills whatever. You are human, you are loved, and you are cared for. It doesn't matter where you've
come from or where you're going. Know that for the moment while you're sitting in this chair and you
have that cape around your neck getting your hair cut that we love you and we care about you.
And doesn't matter anywhere you go just know that this haircut you just got was because you are loved and nothing more.
We don't want nothing from you other than the smile on your face as you look in that mirror,
and that's what that's what it's about. It's what it should be about
and that's what i love about these guys because they don't care where you've come from or where you're going.
You're here in my chair for the moment and let's love you while we're doing it.
And at the end of the day they looked at us like we were all human and that's what we are is we are human.
Some of us have fallen on hard times and some of us haven't you know and that that's what I love
about the the Street Thug Barber movement. It's like I said it's not a handout it's a hand up.