A Barbershop Conversation Can Open the Door to Mental Health Care
Lorenzo P. Lewis turned his experience with incarceration into a mission to help people speak openly about mental health in places they already trust.
A haircut can offer more than a change in appearance. In barbershops across the country, The Confess Project of America trains barbers to listen when customers share their struggles and connect them with mental health resources. The approach brings a difficult conversation into a familiar community space.
The organization’s founder, Lorenzo P. Lewis, understands the importance of being heard and given another chance. Lewis has said he was born while his mother was incarcerated. As a teenager, he was incarcerated himself. After his release, he earned a bachelor’s degree in human services from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and a master’s degree in public administration from Webster University. He later became an author and motivational speaker.
Lewis founded The Confess Project in 2016. Its training teaches barbers to listen without judgment, respond without reinforcing stigma and direct customers toward local support. The organization has expanded its work to include beauty professionals and other community members. It says it had trained more than 5,000 barbers and frontline workers across more than 35 cities by 2024.
Lewis has also pursued mental health advocacy through entrepreneurship. The Confess Project says it received a valuation of more than $20 million in 2023, though the publicly available information does not establish how that figure was calculated. Jordan Lewis is the organization’s CEO; Lorenzo Lewis is its founder.
The idea behind the program is straightforward: A person who is reluctant to seek help may first open up to someone they already know. In a barbershop chair, that conversation could become a first step toward care.
Learn more about The Confess Project of America at theconfessprojectofamerica.org. To follow founder Lorenzo P. Lewis, visit facebook.com/lorenzoplewis.
