Jillian Gorry of Little Things writes:
“Nobody wants to be here,” J.C. Pearson II explains, a man who has experienced homelessness in San Francisco. “I don’t think anybody wants to live outside on a sidewalk. […] You go back to what’s familiar and what you know. If the streets are all you know and the people that are on it, yeah, you’re gonna keep going back to it.”
In this powerful short film, The Regulars: Sidewalks Into Salons, we meet a man who is still very much a professional hairstylist — he just doesn’t get paid.
J.C. challenges our assumptions about people who don’t have permanent housing in an eloquent, even poetic way. I found myself both laughing and crying while watching this! He’s truly a compassionate, selfless individual who just wants to give back to the people who need it most. And for the past 18 years, he’s been diligently lending his scissors to cut the hair of the homeless. Unlike Mark Bustos and Joshua Coombes, however, J.C. is currently without permanent housing himself.
“If you really feel good, it’s amazing what you can do,” he says about his work, and that certainly shines through in his muses. J.C.’s friend Skye had a priceless reaction when he styled her hair, but I won’t spoil it for you. You’ll just have to watch it yourself!