How an Afghan barber set up shop at US base housing thousands

Starting with only hair clippers, barber says he repurposed items at Fort McCoy to set up shop for other evacuees.

Fort McCoy military base, Wisconsin, US – Mohammad* arrived in the United States from Afghanistan hoping to continue his beloved profession. But with nothing but hair clippers with him and little outside resources, the Afghan barber had to get creative.

So Mohammad repurposed what he could find at the Fort McCoy US army base in Wisconsin, where he and thousands of other Afghan refugees are waiting for their immigration cases to be processed.

A camp bed was transformed into a chair for customers; a recycled spray bottle was used to wet clients’ hair, and an American Red Cross bag that once contained blankets was turned into a hair-cutting cape.