A real trade
A barbering skill they can take anywhere in the world, from first scissor control to precision fades and client ready work.
Taku kōrero · My story
Why I do this work.
I know this road, because I walked it. I came from a dark place. Little hope, plenty of potential, no support. Like a lot of our rangatahi, I grew up surrounded by the wrong influences, and for a long time that was all I could see.
Then I hit the end of the road. A one way street with no way out. I knew I had to change, and I knew I had to break the cycles and the generational curses that had run through my family for years. So I made a decision. No more excuses. And I found my way out through barbering.
But I did not do it alone. What turned my life around was my faith, a righteous belief that gave me a foundation to stand on and a reason to keep going when everything else told me to give up. I also found people who believed in me and stood in my corner when I could not stand on my own. Together that gave me the strength to climb out and become the man I am today.
Having someone in your corner changes everything. That is exactly who I am for our rangatahi now. I am the one in their corner, believing in them until they learn to believe in themselves.
So I use barbering to reach rangatahi who remind me of myself. I know it worked for me, and I know it works for them. There is something sacred in cutting someone's hair. In te ao Māori the hair is tapu, it carries mana and energy, and in that chair something real opens up. Walls come down. Kōrero flows. A young person starts to feel like they belong to something bigger than the streets they came from.
That is what I give them. A craft they can carry anywhere in the world, a safe space to speak and be heard, and the trust that breaks the chains. I want to raise up great men and great women, leaders of our community, pioneers of their own future, and walk them from our barber chair out into the world. That is why I do this work.
