Teenage Barber Goes Viral After Providing Haircuts to Homeless: ‘Sometimes It’s About How Much You Can Give’

A young barber is giving dozens of haircuts to unhoused people on the streets of Tennessee, WREG News Channel 3 reported.

19-year-old Darnell Wells, a barber at The Shop in Memphis, went viral after he posted about the endeavor on Facebook. More than 17,000 people have so far liked the post, published on July 17. 

He and his friend, Zac Sherrod, set up a red lawn chair and took clients who wanted a haircut. Clients also got fed, as Sherrod bought hamburgers for all.

“We were just trying to help as many people as we can,” he told WREG. “We didn’t know we were going to help that many people.”

He created a sign that said “free haircuts.” He snapped a photo of the sign and the burgers from McDonald’s and posted it to Facebook.

Other photos he posted to Facebook show his clients in the red seat outside, getting a haircut from Wells. One of the photos is a before-and-after that shows a man sporting a shorter, neatly styled head.

“Sometimes it isn’t about how much you have, but sometimes it’s about how much you can give,” he said.

Wells said he learned a lot from the unhoused men.

“They were giving us their life stories, and how they got into the predicament they’re in — giving us lessons,” he said.