YORK COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) — A York County woman is offering free haircuts to any federal employees who have been impacted by the partial government shutdown.
With every snip and shave, Melissa Aaron is giving back.
“It’s just time and my time is free,” Aaron said.
She’s been cutting hair for more than 20 years. From enlisted Marines to former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, most of her clients are in the military.
“They have to have a fresh haircut, they get inspected actually,” said Aaron.
It didn’t take long for her to realize the partial government shutdown is keeping her regular clients home. She said, “I had noticed that some of our Coast Guard guys were not coming in this past week.”
Aaron posted on Facebook, offering free cuts to anyone affected by the shutdown.
“They have to have a haircut for a job they’re not getting paid to do,” Aaron said.
On Friday, a Coast Guardsman took her up on that offer.
Aaron said, “Even missing one paycheck might be missing a car payment, might be missing a house payment, something like that.”
Aaron will be the first to tell you a haircut isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but when paychecks aren’t coming, it’s something.
“Unfortunately with a lot of these guys, groceries and haircuts and stuff like that are what is going to be gone without,” Aaron said. “So if our community steps up and we all do our little part, then it’ll benefit everybody.”
She also hopes the community takes note: it doesn’t take much to make a change.
“I hope a lot of people in the community start doing little things,” Aaron said. “If we all did little things, which really doesn’t take anything, give back somehow, then I think it’ll benefit all of us.”
Aaron works as a barber at Wolves in Wool in York County. She will be there Tuesday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
