The Freedom Barbershop is located in a 60 year-old red, white and blue trailer on the campus of the Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Health Care System. My photographer friend, Norman Schwartz, took me there in March 2014 to meet the proprietor, who goes by the name Dreamer (aka Tony Bravo Esparza). On the day I met Dreamer, an unkempt Vet walked in. As he got his haircut I asked him about his situation. He told me he had recently gotten out of jail, was living on the VA campus and was to have his first job interview in a few days. I watched as his appearance was transformed and when the haircut was done I asked him how he felt. He said he felt “human again” and said, “I now feel like I belong.”
Dreamer is a veteran and a Native American, half Yaqui and half Apache. He has been cutting veterans’ hair on and off the VA Campus for over forty years. Dreamer gave up his storefront barbershop in a wealthy area of Los Angeles to move to his trailer that he had towed to the campus. Dreamer went from primarily serving the successful (including giving a haircut to Warren Buffett) to the vulnerable and homeless.
Dreamer lifts his customers’ spirits with his jokes, outrageous comments and his short, medium and very tall tales. More importantly, the barber’s touch has a comforting and calming effect on many of these veterans.
Once a month for three days, Dreamer cuts veterans hair for free. Most are living on the campus receiving help and look forward to the free haircut days. They line up early outside the trailer to put their names on a waiting list. Dreamer does free cuts for two days at the trailer and the third day he goes to Vets who cannot come to him; in the hospital, nursing homes and other wards on the VA campus.
© Louis Kravitz, All rights reserved
