How Black barbers bring mental health care to the styling chair

Brothers Marichal and Rodney Brown follow in their father’s footsteps at their HAIRitage barbershop on Sacramento’s Broadway in California, the United States. Earlie D. Brown was a certified master barber in their Bay Area hometown who counted San Francisco Giants’ players among his clientele – he even named son Marichal for family hero and Giants’ Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal. But their father’s shop was much more than a haircut and a shave. It was also a sanctuary with Earlie, known as a trusted ear. His shop featured a back room where he would sit with customers who wanted a more private conversation. “We as Black men, we’re taught not to show emotions,” Marichal said. “But, as Black men, we can talk to others who understand.” Today, the Browns and their Sacramento shop are part of a growing national network of Black barbers and stylists who have become front-line mental health advocates in their communities as members of the Confess Project of America barber coalition. The project capitalises on the centrality of the barbershop in the lives of Black men and youth by becoming a conduit for care. The project is the brainchild of Lorenzo Lewis, the Atlanta-based behavioural...