For the 12th consecutive year, Madison-area school kids can get free haircuts so they can look good and feel good for that first day of school, thanks to the efforts of Jeffrey Patterson and his shop, JP Hair Design.
And for the second year, JP has joined forces with barbers from around town who are uprooting their chairs to transform Alliant Energy Center into one massive barbershop.
“We’re shooting for 40 barbers,” Patterson says. “It’ll be some licensed barbers, some students in barbering and cosmetology, and some guys that aren’t licensed but are looking to go into apprenticeships.”
This year the participating shops include JP Hair Design, Resilient Hair Design, The Edge of Freshness, Atwood Barbers, Crowns of Glory, JT Barber Hair Design Studios, Inspire Barber and Beauty Salon, B. Right Barbershop, Mr. Rudd’s, Vernee Nycole Barbers and other local barbers and students.
“Without them, this doesn’t happen,” Patterson says of the partner shops. “The relationship with the other barber shops and other barbers in town, that’s key.”
Those barbers are hoping to serve a total of 800 to 1,000 students.
“Last year we did 400, and our goal is to double it this year. We’d like to get to 1,000, but realistically, if we hit 800 kids, we’ll be happy,” Patterson says.
The haircuts are free, but reservations are strongly encouraged. They’ll have 200 tickets available for each hour from 10 am through 4 pm.
“The kids come at their ticket time and it creates a flow of people coming through rather than people jamming in at 10:00,” Patterson says. Tickets are available at any of the participating barber shops.
If you don’t get around to getting a ticket, you can still come — but there might be a wait. On the day of the event you can call Dianna Shinall at 608.446.8022 to schedule a time to come in.
