Community Corner
Activist Gives Free Haircuts To Homeless In Tompkins Square Park
The hairdresser and activist Joshua Coombes gave free haircuts to homeless men in Tompkins Square Park this week.
EAST VILLAGE, NY — The British activist Joshua Coombes visited Tompkins Square Park on Tuesday to give free haircuts to homeless men and women.
Coombes has become one of Instagram's most famous social activists through his #DoSomethingForNothing campaign, through which he encourages people to give something – in his case, it's free haircuts — to people who need it and expect nothing in return.
Coombes stopped by the East Village park as part of a 10-city trip for a documentary he and a filmmaker are making. Coombes said he's visiting cities in the U.S. and Europe where homelessness is a persistent issue. After New York City, he said he's flying to San Francisco to film and give haircuts there. Like New York, San Francisco's homeless population has increased dramatically in recent years.
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Coombes told Patch he's visited Tompkins Square Park multiple times in the past several years as he traveled throughout the world giving free haircuts. In September, Coombes gave a haircut to Janusz, a 65-year-old Polish immigrant to the U.S. Coombes shared a before photo of Janusz along with a video showing the man after the haircut, moved to tears by his clean-shaven face.
This is Janusz, 65 years old. He migrated to New York City from a small town outside of Kraków, Poland with his mother when we was a teenager. Janusz has been homeless for the last four years. Initially quite shy, he watched on from a bench nearby as I was cutting hair for another person. We tried to bring him into the conversation and he slowly started to open up. Janusz asked if he could be next in line for a haircut. However, as I was finishing up and ready to call him over, I noticed he had walked away to leave the park. I asked @valeriejardin to catch up and see what had happened. A few minutes later, they returned and Janusz told me quietly that he was embarrassed about his hair being dirty... I reassured him that by the time we were finished he'd be feeling fresh and that this was not a problem for me. During the haircut, as conversation progressed, I saw a change in this man. Evidently more confident and relaxed. There are so many ways to provide that feeling. I've seen just how high you can lift somebody when you treat them with dignity. Janusz has worked his whole life, it's only in recent years that things took a turn. He grew up on a family farm in post-war Poland, working longer days than most of us had to as a child. When you next see someone sat on a park bench looking scruffy, remember to hit the rewind button before you judge. #DoSomethingForNothing
A post shared by Joshua Coombes (@joshuacoombes) on Sep 19, 2017 at 1:34pm PDT
Coombes explained that hoped his approach would allow regular people to make a small impact on seemingly intractable social issues.
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"When you see a big problem with a statistic it's really hard to relate to it," he said. "So finding a small thing, your passion, whatever it is, that you do for someone, can make a big change.
Image credit: Courtesy of Joshua Coombes
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