Mark Bustos’s day job? Styling hair at a salon in New York City. While he’s just as chic and fabulous as many people in his line of work, this 30 year old is more generous than most.
On Sundays, instead of going to brunch or lolling around Central Park, Bustos is flexing his talents and providing haircuts at no-cost for an unlikely clientele: the homeless.
Standing between so many people without homes and employment is the inability to look presentable for job interviews. Mark’s Instagram page showcases the difference that a professional grooming can make to someone’s appearance.
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As Bustos tells the Huffington Post, one client emphasized this exact fact. “After offering him a haircut and whatever food he wanted to eat, he didn’t have much to say throughout the whole process, until after I showed him what he looked like when I was done … The first thing he said to me was, ‘Do you know anyone that’s hiring?'”
Mark’s mission started back in May 2012 after returning home from the Philippines. While visiting relatives there, he rented a local barbershop chair and gave haircuts to impoverished children. He took the idea back home with him and hasn’t stopped since. He doesn’t discriminate by locale, either. He’s given gratis cuts to people in Jamaica, Costa Rica and Los Angeles.
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Fully conscience of his work’s altruism, he deliberately performs his cuts in wide-open public spaces to show everyone how simple it is to #BeAwesomeToSomebody — his personal hashtag — which he uses on all his Instagram photos.
Hopefully, Mark’s story will prompt more people to greet strangers and the less fortunate with the introduction he uses before every haircut, “I want to do something nice for you today.”
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MORE: A Van That Tweets to Help the Homeless