Walkabout Barber
Originally published in The Nyngan Weekly
There was plenty of sleek hair- cuts and sculpted eyebrows in Nyngan last week after a visit from the Walkabout Barber, Brian Dowd.
The Walkabout Barber bus pulled up in O’Reilly Park on Thursday morning, providing 60 free haircuts and beauty treatments to the Nyngan community.
The bus was sponsored by Catholic Care Wilcannia Forbes as a way to help bring the conversation of mental health to the forefront of people’s minds.
Family care worker Belinda Bell was one of the organisers, and said the bus provided a safe and comfort- able outlet to speak about mental health.
“If you think about whenever you’ve gone to go get a beauty treatment or haircut, you always talk about your life, and everything like that. So, I think it’s really good that we’ve got them here, because Brian’s very passionate about mental health, especially in, Aboriginal communities.”
Treatments were free for community members, ensuring there was no financial strain on those attending.
Walkabout Barber founder Mr Dowd said his aim to provide healing through haircuts and beauty treatments.
“We do a lot of mental health, first aid, a lot of connection work, helping people be able to sit down in a space for at least 30 minutes and have a look in the mirror, have a look
at themselves and sometimes be honest with themselves and share some stuff that’s going on in their journey and get some stuff off their chest.”
Mr Dowd founded Walkabout Barber after struggling with his own mental health and deciding he wanted to use his skills as a barber to provide a community space.
“Traditionally ladies have been going to the hairdressers spilling their guts, us men are a little bit slower. It took us a little bit longer to get our head around it but now we understand that actually we can go and get a haircut and have a talk too.
“For men, traditionally, we’ve been taught not to talk, it’s been a space where you got told to keep your emotions close and don’t let them out or you’ll be seen as a sook. Now, men are actually saying that they benefit from speaking and talk- ing, and they can actually get some help.”
Mr Dowd said that unlearning is an important part of the work he and his team do.
Unlearning traditional gendered expectations on who can show emotion and what is weakness at a young age can set boys up for a better future.
Mr Dowd said that the young boys his team sees will all become men and it will be their experiences that help shape future generations of men.
“These young boys are the men of the future.”
“If they see older men talking and showing emotion, even crying, it gives them permission to do the same. Hopefully it rubs off on these young people where they can know they can talk about how they feel.”
Walkabout Barber, Mr Dowd said that youth suicide is an important issue in Australia, and that lack of mental health education is a contributing factor.
Cautious to not blame older generations, he said they didn’t have the tools themselves to talk freely about mental health, and have passed on bad habits and biases to young people.
“Me personally, I tried to take my own life at 27, from a lot of failure in my life and a lot of things just didn’t go right for me. I thought that was the only option because I was one of those men that didn’t talk, and I got raised pretty tough but my dad, you know, throw punches first ask questions later, that was my upbringing. When I tried to take my own journey at 27, I realised that I needed help and I needed to un-program some stuff that I was taught. Not that my dad didn’t teach me with love it, just taught me with the tools he had, so I had to reprogram myself with the tools I needed.”
Today, Mr Dowd trains all his barbers and beauticians to be trauma-informed and provide mental health first aid in the chair. Mr Dowd tells his staff to never be apologetic to their clients, but to respect their vulnerability and share their own stories unashamedly.
Growing up in Coonabarabran, Mr Dowd said travelling the central west is his favourite part of his job. He takes his Walkabout Barber bus across the state and said it is a privilege to meet other Aboriginal people and learn from them during his travel.
“I love what I do. You know, I wake up every morning, passionate, not just about cutting hair but connecting with people while travelling this great sacred land and been able to be on different Country and connect with different cultural groups.
“Even though I’m Aboriginal, it’s great to be on other Aboriginal peoples Traditional Lands and picking up language and eating bush tucker, and I’ve been taken on sacred sites. This is what dreams are made of.”
This isn’t the first time Mr Dowd has stopped in Nyngan, after bringing his original trailer to town pre-pandemic. His current bus has four barber seats and two beautician seats, but he’s got plans for a new vehicle in the works. He said he believes his business set up is a win-win-win, with the whole community benefiting from their visit.
“We get paid to do what we love doing and then the community wins because when we come out because we’ve already been paid from the service provider, we pay that forward. Then everyone gets free haircuts and free beauty services. I think when everyone’s winning, there’s no one losing.”
Ms Bell said sponsoring the service, and ensuring it is free for community members to access, helps organisations like hers better assess what the needs are within the Nyngan community.
“It’s about showing people that there’s someone out there to listen and to talk to them, and to find a connection and maybe get referrals to other services. It gives us a chance as Catholic Care to know what the needs are in the community, which is really important,” she said.
Like many people in Nyngan, Ms Bell boarded the bus on Thursday morning and had a treatment herself.
“I got my nails done, I thought, why not? It was nice because I chatted about my struggles of mental health and the importance of it and not to shy away from it.
“We had a really good chat about that, so you just makes you feel that a little bit more connected knowing that there’s other people out there, who’ve gone through same experiences as myself.”
It’s these conversations that Mr Dowd believes are the most important. Accessible services and open conversations uplift communities and bring forward positive changes.
“You walk away feeling good, not just on the outside but on the inside with a good conversation. I want to change lives and we want to make sure that the lives that we change, they pay it forward to and change lives around them.”
If the above article has brought up any concerns, feel free to contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, or the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800