A small trailer purchased from Facebook Marketplace has been transformed into a barber and beauty shop on wheels, providing haircuts to community members in need.

Serve Society is a collective of barbers and hairstylists that works with Old Pueblo Community Services to provide services to people in recovery or experiencing homelessness, low-income families, justice-involved individuals reentering society, veterans and impacted youth.

It was founded earlier this year by Punit Dhesi, who discovered a passion for cutting hair during his own recovery journey years ago.

“I decided to go back to school for barbering while I was in recovery. I was cutting everybody’s hair in sober living,” Dhesi told Tucson Spotlight. “I try to keep that energy up and try to see how I could make that keep going.”

Dhesi followed his partner from California to Tucson. But while trying to find a way to give back to the community through his passion, he kept running into roadblocks.

After a year of barriers, Dhesi thought, “If I had a licensed unit that I could bring (to service providers) that was fully enclosed, there would be no reason why we wouldn't be able to help their clients,” he said. “There's a good chance that if I'm passionate about the people in early recovery, there's a good chance that other hairstylists and barbers are passionate about other things and I can make this involve them too and take it more places than even beyond my personal passion.”

Dhesi decided to buy a small trailer he found on Facebook Marketplace, outfitted with a full kitchen, couch, bed and more. He tore out the inside and remodeled it, filling it with three separate hair cutting stations.

Serve Society officially opened its doors on April 17. It has participated in nine event days since then, partnering with local shelters and service providers to offer free haircuts to clients.

The group has more events planned with men’s and women’s shelters, reentry, recovery and veterans programs.

Serve Society also hosts regular donor days on Saturdays as a way to connect with the community — inviting people to visit the shop, have a conversation about the organization and receive a haircut in exchange for a tax-deductible donation.

Stylists and barbers volunteer from across Tucson to work with Serve Society on event and donor days. The group has already worked with 10 volunteer barbers and stylists, with some participating in multiple events.

“I think it’s people just looking to give back. Everybody comes for a different reason, but the sentiment is kind of the same: there are people that are there because of their own experience,” Dhesi said. “I’ve got a barber that's on probation doing his community service with me. That's like his thing, but I mean, there are a lot of different reasons to bring people in.”

Some of their donor day clients are returning customers from Dhesi’s pre–Serve Society days, like Osama Mobayed, who started getting his hair cut by Dhesi when he first moved to Tucson.

“He's had this vision since the first couple of times I got a haircut from him. When I first came to Tucson, I think (Dhesi was) my first barber,” Mobayed said. “I got a couple haircuts and then (Dhesi) started setting (the shop) up, so I haven't seen him until today. Being in a chair getting a haircut from him I think is really beautiful and really amazing.”

Serve Society has also been gaining traction on social media, producing videos for their Instagram page and others featuring well-known community members, including Tucson Family Food Project’s Steven Cota-Robles, Congressional District 7 candidate Deja Foxx and more.

The group’s biggest challenge so far has been funding. With the exception of money raised during donor days, Dhesi has paid for everything out of his own pocket — which is why the Saturday events are a critical part of keeping things going.

He said receiving grants can be tough without an established track record, making Serve Society’s journey to sustainability a slow and steady climb.

Dhesi is also working on upgrading the shop with true cosmetology stations that offer a wider range of services, after opening with barber chairs designed only for haircuts, shaves and beard trims.

And while getting better equipment is an important part of the plan, Dhesi has bigger goals.

“I want to get into workforce development, so we're doing, like, apprenticeships and stuff and getting people training, like I did,” Dhesi said. “Part of my recovery, I want to do apprenticeship programs and stuff like that. That would be the biggest expansion.”

Sarah Arellano is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at saraharellano@arizona.edu.

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