Walkabout Barber visits to help locals face up to trauma

Organised by Dubbo Regional Aboriginal Health Service and Western NSW PHN, the roadshow stopped in Nyngan on Monday, and will head to Warren, Coonabarabran and Dubbo later this week.

The movement is the brainchild of Brian Dowd, also a trauma and recovery specialist, who wanted to provide fresh modern haircuts for men in rural and remote areas, that may also be suffering on the inside.

"While people are getting fresh cuts on the outside, we also do workshops and we speak to the community about self care and resilience, and I suppose what we do is provide a lot of preventative approaches around depression, anxiety and suicide," Mr Dowd said.

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"So the barber trailer itself it's not just a mobile barber space, it's a mobile healing space too."

The operation can do up to 60 cuts a day, and barbers can provide the styles and patterns that clients may find difficult to access in city areas.

"A lot of communities that either don't have a barber shop or a shop that does the cuts we do, so it's about outreach and engaging with communities and providing young kids who usually have to go to the city to get these haircuts, we bring them to country areas."

Just as women go to their hairdresser to 'let their hair down and relax, men are invited to do the same at Walkabout Barber.

"The barber chair is a magical space where men can sit down, let their guard down and talk from a place they don't usually talk from and can let their emotional needs and wants out," Mr Dowd said.

"It also gives them an opportunity to clear their own mind, because if you're walking around with a heavy heart and a heavy mind then your spirit is usually disconnected, which can lead to self harm, abuse and neglect and with that comes addiction and bad habit.

"I come from a school of hard knocks too, I was bankrupt at an early age and I tried to take my own life at an early age so for me to be able to turn my life around and come out of that, once I saved my life it's about me coming out and helping other people save theirs."

Not only is the movement aimed at providing a space for cuts, connections and real conversations around healing, hope and happiness it is a space to inspire youth.

"We just want to provide a service where young people connect with each other and can share their life's journey over a haircut or conversation," Mr Dowd said.

"It's also about inspiring the young generation if they want to become barbers there's no reason why they can't.

Mr Dowd thanked Dubbo Regional Aboriginal Health Service and Western NSW PHN for helping them visit the community.

"Without having people to fund us like they are this is impossible," he said.