By Morgan Lane
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Jabari Natur has been a professional barber for decades, but many of the customers he has seen this holiday season have gotten their hair cut for free.
Since August, the master barber and his apprentices have spent Tuesday through Thursday mornings at a local shelter and afternoons at public housing apartments giving free haircuts to low-income residents.
The Barber-Thon Challenge, as Natur calls it, is his way of giving back to the community. He’s aiming to give 1,000 free haircuts before the new year, saying he’s done 459 free cuts in the last four months and is confident he will be able to reach his goal.
“We know it’s so much healing going on,” Natur said, referring to how people feel after a haircut. “This is our ministry – to give cuts that heal.”
Natur plans to reach his goal through his “Compassionate Cuts” program, which aims to serve the community while giving apprentice barbers valuable experience in the haircutting industry.
But 35 years of barbering isn’t just business for Natur. It goes deeper.
When Natur and his team show up at the T.I.M.E. Organization Inc. Recovery Shelter on North Gay Street or the public housing apartments next to Druid Hill Park, the qualifications for receiving a free cut are simple: walk in the room and wait. To some, this may sound too good to be true. To others, this is something to look forward to.
Natur, who owns Conscious Heads Barbershop at Hunter and East 25th streets, sees haircuts as a symbol of fresh starts. He doesn’t just want people to feel good on the outside–he wants to instill healing on the inside.
His journey to consciousness started about 30 years ago when Natur finally watched Spike Lee’s 3½-hour movie “Malcom X,” which he had previously avoided because of its long run time. The film, which starred Denzel Washington and Lee, was life changing.
“Of course, I put it [the VHS] in [the VCR], and that movie just changed my life,” Natur said. “That started my journey into, I guess you want to call, consciousness.”
The 50-year-old Baltimore native eventually changed his name from Corey McDaniels to Jabari Natur to reflect his Pan-African beliefs.
After many changed career paths as well as the passion to serve and teach that was influenced by Malcolm X, Natur opened his own barber shop in 2000. During this time, Natur prided himself on teaching aspiring barbers how to cut hair.
All was going well until he lost one of his top apprentices, leaving him with only two student barbers. Unable to keep up with the demand of his business, Natur was eventually forced to shutter his business in 2014.
He worked as a barber in other shops until 2016, when he was able to re-open Conscious Heads. This time, however, he had a set plan to ensure a steady stream of apprentices: a program he calls Barber Bootcamp.
Natur’s Barber Bootcamp is a six-month program that prepares barber students for an apprenticeship. They work with mannequin heads, learn barber terminology and eventually make it to the floor to cut client hair under supervision.
“It was designed so that I could train barbers,” Natur said. “I could plug them into my system and keep classes going so I would never be in a situation where barbers can get up and run, and you know, just leave without me being able to plug people back into the system.”
In 2021, Natur pushed to change a bill then being considered by the Maryland General Assembly (House Bill 1317) to allow master barbers to recruit more apprentices so he could maximize his teaching abilities from Barber Bootcamp to apprenticeship.
Before this bill was enacted into law, master barbers could only employ one apprentice barber, leaving a 1-1 ratio of master barber to apprentice.
Now, that ratio is 1-3, where one master barber can employ three apprentices in one shop.
Natur, whose shop currently has multiple master barbers and many apprentices, has his apprentices sharpen their skills by participating in the Barber-Thon challenge. They provide a tangible service, but they also provide community, cultural comfort, and in some cases, spiritual healing.
“He’s very accepting and very reassuring,” said Naquidn Browne, an apprentice at Conscious Heads.
Darrell Ferguson, a resident at Baltimore’s Time Org. Emergency Shelter, shared his gratitude for the service by sweeping his and his neighbors’ hair off the shelter floor. He even offered to buy beverages for all the barbers between cuts.
On one recent day in November, residents of Lakeview Towers Apartments, a public housing unit in Druid Hill, filed into the building’s community room. Many clients were looking for minor shapeups, while others, like Diamond Carney, were looking for new beginnings.
“I was scared at first, but it actually feels pretty good,” Carney said after getting a big chop.
Sherrie Alford Abdullah, who is also a resident at Lakeview Towers, voluntarily kept track of a client name list to keep the service organized. She was very fond of the program.
“Everyone needs some love,” Abdullah said. “A lot of people don’t even know what love is.”
As Natur instills resilience into his students, they instill resilience into clients.
Natur said the Black community is resilient. He mentioned that no hard work comes without struggle, but hard work doesn’t go unseen.
“The ancestors and the creators spoke to me,” he said. “I’m very clear about why I’m here on this earth, you know, and it’s definitely to be here to leave a legacy, to help my people and to make the world a better place.”