On Thursday, students gathered at West Grove Commons for haircuts, food and video games in what event organizer Duane Hercules Jr. hoped would be a space where all students, especially Black students, felt safe to come to get a free haircut.

Hercules Jr., who is a resident assistant at West Grove Commons, said that many students in his building and other ones had come to him asking about barbers in the city. 

“I know that when I first got here, one of my first struggles was finding a barber because I know there’s probably a lot of barbers that cut here in San Francisco,” said Hercules Jr. “But finding one that I can trust to cut my hair as a Black person, as well as that was affordable, was almost impossible.”

“It’s hard to find a good barber,” said Nate Mugambi, a student who attended the event. “And if you do find a good barber, you know, they charge sometimes upwards of $60- 70. And some kids, you know, they can’t afford that on a weekly, biweekly or, you know, monthly basis.”

For these reasons, Hercules decided to contact Ron Montgomery of 557 Parlor to come to San Francisco State University and provide students with the opportunity to get their hair cut by a professional for free. However, more than just providing free haircuts, Duane wanted to create an event that could bring Black students together, as he felt that they are often neglected on campus.

“I’m not saying I don’t feel safe here, but I don’t think there’s a lot of spaces for me to go and feel fully Black and fully myself, if it’s not a [Black Student Union] meeting once every other week,” Hercules Jr. said. “I don’t want to feel Black once every other week. I’m Black all the time.”

Therefore, a main goal of the event was to get students to not only come for the haircuts, but to stay and hang out. Free food was provided and attendees were encouraged to eat, talk, and play games like Madden on the commons room TV. There was even a raffle for a pair of eyelash extensions. 

The event drew a large group of students, with the number of attendees seeming to peak around 12:30 p.m. when the food was brought in, catered by Touch of Soul, a Black-owned soul food restaurant based out of Emeryville, California.

“I do think the barbershop feel is important, and also the soul food was important to it,” Mugambi said. 

Montgomery, the barber giving haircuts at the event, talked about the importance of barber shops in Black culture, and how they have historically provided a space for people to relax and be themselves, while strengthening the community. 

“I feel like a lot of the times, the way things were going in society, you go get your haircut in your barbershop, you just kind of eliminate all that stress, you get to look good, you get to talk to your barber,” Montgomery said. “You learn a lot in the barbershop. A lot of the people come in there. a lot of great people come in there.”

As part of the event, Kenya Sullivan, a social worker and academic success coach, came to speak to those who were attending about the struggles and challenges of being a Black student at SFSU, such as frustrations with professors. 

“Originally I came for a haircut, but I found out that we were also doing a speaker thing, so I stayed around and I listened to that for a little bit,” said Nathan Eznwa, another student who attended the event. 

“I learned a lot from him coming over here and talking. More than I thought.”

Hercules said that he had been trying to organize the event since last October, but he was glad that it ended up happening during Black History Month. He also mentioned Ravyn Johnson, the area coordinator at West Grove Commons, and Dalyce Brown, outreach recruitment and retention specialist at the Black Unity Center, as being key to organizing the event, to whom he was very grateful for their help. 

Hercules hopes to host events like this one more regularly, and to incorporate other things into them such as free headshots for attendees to use on LinkedIn and other networking platforms. 

“I don’t mind having it like maybe once a semester or even once a year,” Hercules said close to the end of the event. 

Then, he smiled. 

“But I would have it every month if I could.”

This story has been updated to correct a name misspelling.