The Hairdresser and I…and social responsibility

So a few weeks ago I was in my home town in KwaZulu Natal, Vryheid, when I went for a desperately needed haircut. The barbershop I go to when I’m there is operated by a born-again Christian guy called Jonathan Foti, who started out from a small backroom at his house, where we used to go to when I was still in grade 8 or 9. Funny, I remember him before he got born-again…quite a foul-mouthed guy then, but ever since he became a Christian there was nothing of the sort.

Anyway, this is not about him, I’m just telling this because he is our “go to” guy for hair (for me and my dad anyway) when I’m visiting my parents. His hair studio has long been unisex and he has a few ladies working for him.

So I made my appointment and got there on an extremely hot December afternoon. That was about the same time we were doing that volunteer work at Inkululeko Babies Home. As always happens, the hairdresser (a lady) and I started talking about what I do for a living and before long we got into the whole thing about giving money to car guards or not. The conversation then went on to giving to the poor and needy. She also said that she doesn’t like to give to beggars at robots, because they are always there and that only creates more problems than it solves. Incidently, she has also done some volunteer work at Inkululeko but she said she’d rather give money to the organizations that run places like that, she doesn’t quite have the stomach to do the physical work.

Which is fine by me. At least she recognizes the need. At least she is willing to contribute to the answer. At least she isn’t blaming everyone and everything or saying that somebody else should do it.

That gave me hope.

So, yes, you can be inspired by a trip to the hair salon.

“You’ve got to keep your mind wide open…” – Bridge to Terabithia

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Sleutelwoorde: haircut, hairdressers, Inkululeko, social responsibility

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