In the mobile hair salon, homeless people can get out of the survival stand: ‘Do nice and short, it will soon be summer, isn’t it, « 

« Good to see again man, my hair has been a long time! » Cornelis Mecklenfeld (36) shouts against street hairdresser Auke van Harten when he steps into the gray hairdressing van, which is parked next to a Rotterdam homeless shelter of the Salvation Army. While Mecklenfeld takes a seat in a black chair, Van Harten (34) asks what a hairstyle he would like. « Quite a bit is allowed. Especially at the top, but let it go over. Not completely bare on the sides, » says Mecklenfeld after thorough inspection of the own hair in the wall mirror.

The Drontenaar came to the street two years ago, after he had lost his job as a gardener and could no longer pay for his home. Initially he tried to look well cared for (he said he looked like « a real Erasmus student »), but that was too pricey.

To gather more money, Mecklenfeld decided to tackle it differently. He had himself deteriorated. « My mother always said, » If you are stupid than you are, you will get help faster.  » I applied that principle. « 

Van Harten Fronst: why does he let himself be cut now? « You saw what I looked like, right? Isn’t that possible? » Mecklenfeld replies laughing. « And you are free, of course! »

From 2017, Auke van Harten cuts free homeless or people in financial need, in and around Rotterdam. After watching a video of a trio Canadian hairdressers (Street Thug Barbers) On YouTube who cut their homeless people for free, Van Harten and colleague Sjoerd de Vries were inspired. « We thought that was so cool. They really gave something back to the community. And it means so much for those people. We wanted that too. »

After a hairdressing course, the duo started cutting once every two weeks in improvised rooms at homeless deposits, food banks or addiction clinics. Their ‘mobile hair salon’ consisted of a cargo bike and a backpack with hair clips, gel and scissors. « I did that in addition to my work as a personal counselor in the care of the disabled. That was extremely busy, » says Van Harten.

Brand new

After a winning pitch in 2021 at the Awesome Foundation, a foundation that supports small projects, the street hairdressers received more attention and money. Both from humanitarian organizations and large companies. They were able to cancel their permanent job and become a professional street hairdresser: « Humanitas (a national volunteer organization that offers people in need) wanted to make us a fixed project. As a result, one after the other wanted to sponsor us, and we could receive a fixed salary and do the work full -time. »

Last October, thanks to that sponsorship and a benefit evening (on which 130,000 euros was collected) a brand new hairdresser’s bus could be purchased: an electric vehicle with ‘the street hairdresser’ on the side in Capitals. Furthermore, the exterior is equipped with countless names of sponsoring companies, as well as the motto – « head by head change the world » – and a life -size image of the hairdressers.

A hairdressing is intimate, you touch someone’s hair and you have a chat

The white inside of the van, a mobile mini -physiotherapist, is just as impressive. Compared to the very beginning, this is ‘ten times better’. « I had to cut once in a shed with a hundred bunk beds, » says Van Harten. « There was hardly any room, with two hundred people around you. The crowds and chaos made the work almost impossible. »

When Van Harten, under the final sounds of ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’, puts one final hand on the haircut of Mecklenfeld, Jeffrey van der Valk comes around the corner. « Ah, what coincidentally, I just walked out of the park where I slept this way and saw your van. Does it take a long time? » Five minutes later it will be the 37-year-old (« nice and short, it’s summer, isn’t it? But on top a little longer ») and tells about how he became homeless. « I was married, we had a daughter and I worked as a truck driver. Then my wife suddenly wanted to divorce. I chose to leave home right away. »

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Photo Hedayatullah Amid

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Photo Hedayatullah Amid

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Photo Hedayatullah Amid

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Photo Hedayatullah Amid

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Photos Hedayatullah Amid

While Van Harten started the beard, Van der Valk says – with breaks in between to prevent accidents with the blade – that he ended up in depression and lost his job. « The contact with my daughter was not exactly flawless. That influenced my mood. I really thought: » I throw the truck into the crash barrier.  »

That was a clear signal for Van der Valk to stop working. Only he also lost the roof over his head.

Van Harten notices that the hairdressing bus creates an intimate atmosphere, in which homeless people easily share personal stories. In addition, there is some attention, social interaction, something they often lack. « Normally, homeless people are passed by, sometimes not even a glance, with a big bow avoided. A haircut is intimate, you touch someone’s hair and have a chat. »

That is also the reason that, despite the neglected hygiene that he sometimes finds, Van Harten does not wear gloves: « They implicitly give the signal that you find the other person dirty. That creates distance. » Van der Valk is demonstratively shaking the head. « Society is hard man, hard. »

Although on this sunny Tuesday morning it is not exactly a queue for the mobile hairdressing studio, Van Harten generally sees the crowds increasing. This is in line with a recent study commissioned by The Poverty Fundwhich shows that six in ten aid organizations establish an increase in the number of people who ask poverty aid.

Staff

According to Van Harten, his customers can hardly return to society. The street hairdresser speaks of ‘ten hoops’ that homeless people have to jump through, for example to get housing or psychological help. And if they do not get ‘the eleventh hoop’, through ‘one misstep, with, for example, an addiction, one failed check in the process, they must start all over again’.

And, according to a spokesperson for the Salvation Army, Housing is precisely the means to get homeless people back on the right path: « They are now in a survival position and then they are more susceptible to addiction. Just using a means to forget the misery from the street for five minutes. A home would help huge. » But in a densely populated country with a home crisis, the chance of this is small.

Back in the hairdressing bus, Van Harten asks the homeless customer what he thinks of his new haircut. Van der Valk appears to be confident: « Great, this gives me courage for a new beginning. Hopefully this will give me a new job and new contact with my daughter! » While he gets out of the van and walks towards the entrance to the Salvation Army, Mecklenfeld, who now sits outside in a porch, shouts: « Looking good boy! I hardly recognize you anymore! »

Van Harten, who sees the moment with a big grin, says: « Do you see that smile? That is exactly what I am doing it for. »

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