GLENDALE – Surrounded by the low hum of clippers and the click of scissors cutting hair, a group of older adults sits at a long rectangular table in the Glendale Community Center. They place beans on Lotería cards – a traditional Mexican game similar to bingo – as one of the staffers calls out the names of icons on the playing cards, in broken yet well-intentioned Spanish. One client jumps up from her salon chair as soon as her haircut is done to join the rest of them to see if she can fill her card and yell “Lotería!” to win the game.
The barbers and hairstylists at the Glendale Community Center are part of a nonprofit organization called The ClipDart Giveback, a group of mobile barbers and hairstylists who help improve the mental health of vulnerable communities by providing an authentic barbershop and hair salon experience. According to its website, ClipDart was founded in response to the disparity of students of color and vulnerable populations being able to access affordable, quality hair services from barbers or hairstylists, particularly those skilled at cutting the hair of people of color. There are two pillars to ClipDart: ClipDart Inc.
and The ClipDart Giveback. Rosella Detert sits for her haircut at the Glendale Community Center on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Sam Ballesteros /Cronkite News) ClipDart Inc.
works with institutions to assist people of color at predominantly white colleges and in white areas who cannot access barbers that meet their cultural .
