Shortly after the start of the pandemic in New York last spring, Herman James packed his scissors and left for Central Park. He was going to reinvent himself as the hairdresser of the most famous of New York’s parks. A year later, business is going well for this 33-year-old man, the latest attraction to date for this green lung known for its musicians, skaters and rare birds. “I love being a pioneer in a monopoly situation”, says Herman James between cuts in his “living room” – a folding chair set up under an arbor, near Strawberry Fields, a memorial site for John Lennon.
Every day, weather permitting, he takes the 45-minute subway from his home in Brooklyn to the park entrance on the Upper West Side. And takes out of his suitcase with scissors, hair clipper and mirror, which he fixes to the arbor.
He lines up the hair products on the floor, puts a gown on the chair and unrolls a poster saying: “Hairdresser in Central Park: free haircuts”.
Most people – mostly men, but also women, as long as they don’t ask “nothing complicated“- give him the average price for a haircut in New York, $ 20 to $ 30. But donations range from $ 1 to $ 200.
Herman James began offering haircuts in the park in May 2020, when hairdressers were forced to close due to the pandemic.
“I just decided to take the initiative“, he tells AFP. He hoped to help boost the morale of New Yorkers, and that the latter, grateful, would pay him. At the beginning, the authorities of park were taken aback. “It was the first time they had seen something like this. There was no permit or procedure to apply for it. They didn’t know what to do with me..”
But demand, fueled by articles in the local media, made his salon permanent. At the height of the pandemic, he was making 20 to 25 cuts a day. Now he makes between 10 and 15. Herman James has even created a smartphone application, “Schedulicity”, for reservations …
Despite the reopening of hairdressers and the lifting of most restrictions in New York next Wednesday, he does not plan to return to work in a traditional salon. “The demand is still there. And I am the first in history. Going from that to working for someone else, I’m not interested“he said.
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