Looking good, feeling good: LINC families at King get holiday haircuts
Hair stylists from the Ea La Mar’s Cosmetology and Barber College give free haircuts for LINC families at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School Caring Communities Dec. 16.
Razors hummed. Boys winced. Hairstylists volunteering their time eyeballed precise trims as they made their holiday haircuts perfect.
“This is really cool,” said parent B’Lasha Perkins, taking in the scene on the Friday before the holiday break, Dec. 16, at LINC Caring Communities at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Kansas City.
“And it’s not just anybody (cutting the hair),” said parent LaShonda Washington, as she watched her son get his special trim. “They’ve got people with skill.”
Those people were fellow hairstylists rounded up by Justin Dixson, a Lincoln College Prep graduate and a student at the Ea La Mar’s Cosmetology and Barber College in Kansas City.
“It’s about feeling good, looking good and getting confidence,” said Dixson, who brought what he sees as a good mental health program back to King as a reprise of a similar free hairstyling event they did at the start of the school year.
“(Feeling good about one’s hair) goes a long way from social to education to everything,” he said. “You feel good, you look good, you play good, you have a good day.”
The barber shop, set up in a lounge next to King’s cafeteria, was one highlight of a full afternoon of holiday celebration at LINC’s Caring Communities program at King. Families were sharing pizza. Children were taking home free books from First Book and toys from the U.S. Marine’s Toys for Tots.
“It’s nice they’re able to bring people in to give the kids haircuts,” Perkins said. “Food is out there. Gifts for the kids . . . This is awesome.”
LINC Caring Communities Coordinator Darryl Bush has known Dixson since he was young, coaching him in youth basketball. Families were excited to see that the holiday barber shop was coming to King, he said, especially after they saw the cuts students received in August.
King Elementary Principal Dana-Mae Abram said the holiday barbershop provides important support for the children, their families and the school.
“We want to make sure children look their best so they can do their best,” she said. “Many of these kids have gone through something. Looking good makes the heart feel happy and good.”
By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer