At This Barber Shop, Children Get $2 Discount If They Read a Book

If only adults could get a discounted haircut for reading a book, but hey, it’s for the children.

A barber shop in Michigan knocks a couple of bucks off the price of a haircut for children on one condition: read a book.

In Ypsilanti, a town near Ann Arbor, MI, there is a barbershop called Fuller Cut that aims to improve the education of the children in their community by encouraging more reading.

And what better way to encourage kids to read than money.

If the child getting a haircut reads a book aloud to their barber during their haircut, they get a $2 discount.

“It’s high on the top and short on the bottom, and lines that go in a diagonal line where the top is gonna be,” explains 7-year-old Jozef Jason to nprEd, getting a mohawk at Fuller Cut.

“It’s an amazing thing,” said his dad, Keith, on the program. “It’s helping my pockets, it’s helping their education, and it’s helping prepare a better future for them, so I love it.”

The program would not have been possible if it weren’t for employee Ryan Griffin who discovered the idea in action in Harlem, NY and brought it over to Ypsilanti.

After Griffin’s boss gave the green light, the shop received dozens of books donated by the community for the children to check out during their grooming.

“We get complimented by teachers that will say it does so much for these kids throughout the school year,” said Griffin.

The 20-year-veteran barber even partakes in quizzing his students/customers.

“… Maybe someday some kid will grow up and be a journalist, be a writer, and he’ll say, ‘You know what, when I was young, my barber used to make me read.'”

Thanks to Fuller Cut’s initiative, over 100 children in the community and also nearby communities have come in for that sweet discount, spiffy haircut, and educational reading session.

Plus, the idea is something many shops across the country have also been executing, some calling it Groomed for Literacy.

Today, cities such as Houston, Dubuque, IW and Columbus, OH have the program or one like it and the overall success will surely inspire other cities to follow.