Prisons and detention centers in Colorado and across the country have made beauty and barber schools part of their educational training.
R & R Head Labs is a new salon in Denver dedicated to changing negative perceptions around people who were incarcerated while giving them a platform for their skills.
“They didn’t have razors for you to practice with in there,” laughed Geno Duran. “But I had plenty of other practice with the inmates.”
Geno Duran is one of the barbers who earned a cosmetology certification behind bars.
If he hadn’t turned his life around through cutting hair, Duran says he’d likely be back in prison or dead.
“I wish I had this before I went to prison. I didn’t have anybody to believe in me or to hold me up and tell me ‘hey, this is what you should do. This is what we see you’re great at.’ I might not have gone down that bad path,” said Duran. “God’s timing is perfect and I’m grateful for this moment.”