One school is changing the lives of its students by providing them with the chance to develop their abilities. Recently, Jaiden Martin, a student at Arundel High School, inaugurated the school’s first Arundel Barber and Beauty Salon.
He was previously enrolled in a program — the Barber Internship Project — to train new barbers, which is a collaboration between Kendrick’s Barbershop and Rob’s Barbershop Community Foundation.
He told 11News, “It really is like a dream come true,” Martin, an Arundel senior, said. “It is surreal for me personally because I’ve never seen this.”
While finishing the Barber Internship Project, he gathered experience cutting hair at Kendrick’s Barbershop in Odenton using his own chair.
Martin noted of the new barber and beauty salon in his school, “A lot of students come in here. We have a need for grooming services, and I don’t want to just be giving out average haircuts just because it is a need. I want to be giving out professional cuts and just cuts that are going to boost everybody’s confidence up, make everybody feel good.”
Thanks to Robert Cradle, a master barber and CEO of Rob’s Barbershop Community Foundation, Arundel’s store is completely equipped and sponsored. Cradle pays Martin and the other barbers and beauticians, allowing students to get their hair styled for free.
Cradle remarked, “Just seeing it every day, seeing a student operate something like this every day, I think, will inspire other students, seeing that it’s possible.”
Kimberly Winterbottom, Arundel’s principal, shared the importance of the program, saying, “Students have to come to school, so just making life easier for students who may not be able to get to another place, or for parents who are working after school hours, transportation, just having it here just cuts out a lot of those barriers.”
“It’s very inspiring to see one of my other students cutting hair,” James Barefoot, an Arundel junior, said. “It makes me kind of want to get into the haircutting industry.”
16-year-old Martin fell in love with barbering as a child watching his dad cut his hair.
“He wasn’t the best barber as I was a little kid, but he definitely did keep me fresh,” he said.
