Tribes Barbers // The Red Chair Project
Henry and Soliman // Tribes Barber Studios
A couple months back we had the opportunity to branch out of the Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood and team up with the talented barbers of Tribes Barber Studios.
We’ve said this before, and will say it again: The Red Chair Project is about building relationships, just as much as it is about giving haircuts.
When Henry Tribes, owner of Tribes Barber Studios, reached out about joining forces, we were ecstatic. Not only did this cool barber find value in what we were hoping to do, but he wanted to get hand’s-on. Up until this point, we have offered haircuts in our immediate community. Why? Because it gives us the opportunity to continue connecting, and getting to know our neighbors in a meaningful way.
We asked Henry if it would be cool for us to spend time in Spring Lake Park for this venture. We love the idea of barbers/hairstylists taking this simple concept and making it their own, and meeting people who they are likely to come in contact with again.
We showed up on a Sunday morning with our Red Chairs (yes, we fit TWO red chairs in the Nissan… we still aren’t quite sure how…) at Tribes Barber Shop, and met up with Henry and Soliman. These two barbers were taking time out of their day off to go out and see if anyone in the Fridley community could benefit from a free haircut.
After driving around a bit, we ended up parking our cars in the Walmart parking lot and set up our makeshift traveling red chairs. This was the first time we set up two red chairs and collaborated with other creative stylists/barbers!
As the morning progressed, more heads were turning our way. After giving quite a few haircuts, and meeting great people in the Fridley community, we were feeling the awesome impact this project can have. At one point, our parking lot salon was so busy that we started doing haircuts on the nearby picnic bench.
We seriously lucked out with the people we had the opportunity to interact with: from a pregnant mom who was grateful for a service she didn’t have the resources to book for herself, to a man who was having a rough time and welcomed a bottle of water and a sweet fade, courtesy of Soliman!
We loved having the opportunity to collab with our friends at Tribes Barber Studios. Their generosity and heart gave us the push we needed to find more ways to include other stylists/barbers in our Minnesota (and beyond!) communities!
Stay tuned about a pretty cool Red-Chair-First on October 20th!
written by: Emily Lall // Katie Steller