"Fred and Desmond aren't in a salon. They're on the sidewalk outside the Kelly Cullen Community building on Leavenworth Street, a popular gathering area for Tenderloin residents during the day that on most days hosts an outdoor barbershop. Beneath the cape, Fred sits on a wooden diner chair. Others nearby chat or doze on overturned milk crates, wheelchairs, or the steps into the building, when they're not gated off to prevent loitering."
"Cannady, 24, grew up in Stockton helping around a barbershop where his uncles worked, but picked up cutting hair on his own when he was 12 or 13, after his parents stopped paying for his weekly haircuts. "My parents, they wanted me to learn how to hustle," he said. "So I'm like, you know what? Let me just learn how to cut hair. I asked my grandma that Christmas for some clippers.""
"It wasn't until he was out of school that he recognized his passion for cutting hair and began pursuing it as a calling. As he got started, people would let him cut hair in their shops under the table, or he'd offer cuts out of his apartment or car."
Fred, 48, sits on a wooden diner chair under a knockoff Louis Vuitton cape, getting a fresh fade while smoking a cigarette. Desmond Cannady, 24, stands behind him holding a trimmer and a brush, performing outdoor haircuts on a sidewalk near the Kelly Cullen Community building on Leavenworth Street. The outdoor barbershop attracts Tenderloin residents who gather on milk crates, wheelchairs, and steps. Cannady learned to cut hair at age 12 or 13 after parents stopped paying for weekly haircuts, using clippers gifted by his grandmother. He moved from side-hustle cuts to pursuing barbering despite past run-ins with the law, cutting in shops, apartments, cars, and on the street.
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