Ryan Griffin, a barber at the Fuller Cut Barbershop in Michigan has a very interesting program that he offers to children who come to get a hair cut. If they read to him while he’s working on their head, then they will receive either a $2 discount or the child gets gifted with $2! Griffin told BuzzFeed News that this wasn’t his original idea though. In fact, he was inspired by an article he once read.
“I first read about barbers in Harlem, Tampa, and Iowa doing this and it hit me like a book,” he said. “That’s so responsible!” Griffin has a degree in African American studies, so he already had tons of books “with diverse characters” to bring to the shop. The barber even has books catering to young girls who may enter the shop! “We have books, for example, like Big Hair Don’t Care, so when girls come in here they know that their big hair is beautiful and that they are beautiful,” he said.
The reason why Griffin started this program at his shop was to teach the kids to love themselves. “Our kids are fighting an image war [so] it’s important that we have something to counter that,” he told Buzzfeed News. “In schools, they may not receive the same literature that we provide. We can get these babies to love themselves.”
This is so dope! Griffin also donates left over books to surrounding barber shops in order to inspire them to do the same!
TSR STAFF: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on Instagram & @tallyohhh on Twitter!
Source: http://www.thefader.com/2016/10/16/kalief-browder-mom-dies/amp
