I would find myself having to go fight other people's battles and I think that I'm doing a good thing until I got locked up
It was enough for me to think, 'this is not the life'
How many people did you kill?
Alright Charles, what are you gonna do to me?
I got you man, I got you.
So Charles what dirty secrets are you harbouring in this man cave?
You know what they say man, what happens in the man cave, stays in the man cave
This is the space where we encourage men to communicate. A lot of what I do is about helping men to open up
I think it's hard for a lot of men because it's something society doesn't encourage.
I think what we're doing here in the barbership is doing a lot to redefining masculinity.
'That's not how a man behaves' or 'You're not a man'
Those lines and those phrases to me are some of the most dangerous phrases you can throw about in society today.
Out here in the suburbs being a man has it's own set of rules, right? Which is quite different. Why?
It's a different culture out here. Guys can be very territorial.There's a lot of bravado,
guys that are really really how can I say?- passionate about protecting their postcode
On average The Blacktown LGA has a higher rate of property and violent crime compared to the rest of New South Wales.
But Charles is determined to change that one cut at a time.
I do get some pretty rough dudes that come in here and you know before I got into doing this that was something that crossed my mind.
Do I want to promote my service working from home, put my address out there, knowing what it could bring.
Then I thought to myself, if I let that stop me, what am I contributing?
For me it's, I think to myself, if I can have them in my space, then I can influence them, effect positive change on them.
I just want to live my life with purpose and I want to encourage young men to do the same.
After doing a brief stint of jail time in his early 20’s Charles became a youth worker.
Barbering turned his life around and he skilled up for years by watching youtube tutorials.
Now 39, with years of razor sharp technique, he’s booked out most days.
Anything above that is a high fade, anything below that point there is a low fade
When Charles isn’t cutting paying clients in his garage, he’s running free workshops here for locals like Kiko, Rua & Sione.
So what we do is we raise the zero so there's no shadows
Rua how do you feel when you're cutting, when you've got the clippers in your hand and you're about to go in?
when you cut you always have someone different in a chair, you get to know their story
'cause you can express your feelings to them and they can express their feelings to you.
We talk a lot about what it means to be a man.
Does that make you feel good?
Yeah, 'cause I can express it to someone instead of holding it in and then getting all angry and sad and stuff.
It makes me feel like, everyone's emotional. Everyone feels something you've just got to know how to bring it out of them.
Does it get emotional? Are there tears?
I can tell by the body language when they come in, something's happened in this guy's life.
One guy come in here and I was cutting his hair and I seen this big scar on his head. Turned out that he had been shot in the head
I'll purposely probe. I'll purposely try to open this person up, and it does get deep.
Stories of depression, marriage breakdown, deep struggles with alcohol.
I have been moved to tears in a session that I done before.
That's interesting, you called it a session. I mean, you're not a counsellor, you're not a psychologist, you're not a therapist
Yeah, I guess you could look at it like that but I look at it as in all these guys that come out and unload, all they want is a friend
Is there something that you want to get off your chest Pat? You're more than welcome to jump in the chair.
You want to cut my hair?
Yeah
As Charles cuts he schools me on the history of barbering and his second love…barbershop music.
While we focus on the barbering skills and learning about the processes and techniques and that
there's always a part in a workshop where, all of our attention goes to music.
And then, you know, I'll bust out, have a bit of a sing
So not only did I get an ear full of sweet accapella from Kiko and Rua, I scored an awesome taper fade
all while I offloaded the not so great stuff going on in my own life
It’s the full service that Charles calls ‘a check up from the neck up'
That's awesome
Cool man.
Love that
So what does it mean to be a real man?
The thing that I boil it down to with the boys is maturity.
Maturity's got nothing to do with age. It's a behaviour.
Be respectful and to be open and honest. The special thing about barbering is where it really helps change young men's lives,
is that fundamentally it's about service to others and so it's about learning a skill but also giving back to other people in your community as well.
Charles, you're doing an incredible service to society being the man that you are, it's been absolute pleasure chatting to you, thank you so much
You're welcome, thank you