{"id":48594,"date":"2024-08-07T22:47:47","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T02:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=48594"},"modified":"2024-08-07T22:47:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T02:47:52","slug":"a-fresh-cut-a-fresh-start-mobile-barber-trailer-offers-free-haircuts-to-the-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/08\/07\/a-fresh-cut-a-fresh-start-mobile-barber-trailer-offers-free-haircuts-to-the-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"A fresh cut, a fresh start: Mobile barber trailer offers free haircuts to the homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Something as simple as a haircut can provide a fresh start for someone, but for the homeless, a haircut can be too expensive and challenging to receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A nonprofit in Lakeland,\u00a0Worth, and Purpose<\/a>, is offering free haircuts out of a mobile barbershop in the parking lot of Gospel Village, which is a tiny home community for the chronically homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travis Doodles is the owner and a barber of 20 years. The two-chair barber trailer was just donated to him; however, he doesn’t just offer haircuts to the homeless or anyone who really needs one. He offers free clothes and rides to job interviews as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our nonprofit does a lot of things from buying a sandwich and making someone’s day better and getting someone off the streets permanently,” said Doodles. “We build them up, we give them a fresh haircut. Through that process, we build that relationship. We help them get jobs and there’s just nothing like a fresh haircut. It’s like a vitamin. Makes you feel good. It’s like a fresh start.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rick Higham was homeless in Lakeland more than a year ago, and before that, he was hardcore homeless for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I had worked my whole life, but fell off a roof and shattered my leg. Never really recovered,” said Higham. “Work was hard and I was getting up there in age and had to do what I had to do to survive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around a year ago, Doodles pulled up in an ice cream van and gave Higham a free sandwich and put him in a hotel for a few days. The interaction was posted on Doodles’ YouTube channel and his millions of followers donated money to buy Higham a trailer home so he could get off the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re not going to walk into a business knowing you don’t smell too good or look too good,” said Higham. “Don’t have the money. There’s no judgment with Travis. You need it, I’ve got it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For right now, the barber shop is by appointment only, but Doodles says if they get enough barbers on board they can get a normal schedule going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“God has changed my life so much and that just overflows into everything I do now, so really that’s why I do it. I just love God and I want people to feel his love,” said Doodles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Higham, services like this are a tremendous blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Being homeless for many, many years, you look forward to people like this and there’s no strings attached. If you want it, here it is. If you don’t, that’s fine.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something as simple as a haircut can provide a fresh start for someone, but for the homeless, a haircut can be too expensive and challenging to receive. A nonprofit in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":48597,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mobile-Barbershop-2.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[9371,9372],"class_list":["post-48594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-a-fresh-cut","tag-a-fresh-start-mobile-barber-trailer-offers-free-haircuts-to-the-homeless"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48599,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48594\/revisions\/48599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}