Local barbers are looking to provide 1,000 free haircuts to Madison-area kids to get them ready for their first day of school at the annual JP Hair Design’s Back 2 School Free Haircutz event at the Alliant Energy Center on Sunday, Aug. 25, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
“We have a host of different barber shops that are participating,” Jeff “JP” Patterson, owner of JP Hair Design, the host of the annual event, tells Madison365. “We want to start trying to get the kids ready to go back to school Sunday.”
Barbers from various barbershops and hair salons will participate in the event including JP Hair Design, Inc., Jacob Cutz, Crowns of Glory, Spencer Hair Design, Love Lee Beauty LLC, Marveliz Cutz, Headquarters Barbershop, G Stylez Salon, A Shaving Grace Barbershop, Lifestyle Haircare, UnderGroundKutz, Capital City Barbers, Regent Cuts Barbershop, Resilient Hair Designs, JT Barber Hair Salon, Mr Rudd’s Barbershop, and Atwood Barbershop.
“Our goal is always 1,000 haircuts. We hit 700 last year. We have 35 haircutters signed up to cut hair that day right now,” Patterson says. “We’re just always trying to give nice haircuts to as many kids as we can in the building. It’s so important for our students to be looking good on that first day. You look good, you feel good.”
The presenting sponsor this year for JP Hair Design’s Back 2 School Free Haircutz is the Ingold Family Foundation. “Alec [Ingold] used to play football for the Wisconsin Badgers and he now plays for the Miami Dolphins. We’re so happy that he is our lead sponsor this year,” Patterson says.
With a particular focus on the adoption and foster care systems, the Ingold Family Foundation helps young people achieve their dreams by providing education, inspiration, support, and access to opportunity.
This will be the 16th year for the Back 2 School Free Haircutz event. Back in the day, before it grew to the giant event it is now, it used to be held at JP Hair Design on Madison’s West Side.
“When we first started this event, we were doing it in the JP Hair Design. It was the current barbers that were at the shop … there were probably seven or eight of us,” Patterson remembers. “And then as we grew, bringing new people on. At one point, one of the barbers that we used to work with, Spencer Johnson, said, ‘We need to get a bigger venue.’”
That’s when they made the move to the Alliant Energy Center and the event got even bigger and better.
A big piece of the event every year is the presentation of the Smitty Scholarship. Madison’s first black barber Taylor “Smitty” Smith was a legendary and inspirational pioneer in his trade and also a mentor to Patterson. Smith passed away in 2016 at the age of 92 after more than six decades in the barbering business.
The Back 2 School Free Haircutz is for children in grades K-12. An appointment ticket is preferred for kids to get their hair cut. Sign up here.
“This is one of my favorite events. I love to see the kids getting their haircuts, smiling and having fun and looking good. But I also love to see having the unity of all these barbers in the city,” Patterson says. “We come together. You don’t see that in other cities. You don’t see barbers in other cities, coming together, working together.
“We’ve created a good community. We help each other; we do things with each other. So this event is something that I look at like, ‘Wow, we’re doing something different than in other cities.’ So Sunday will be about community, This will be unity.”
