'We have to give back something': The barber who cuts hair for the homeless outside the GPO

Hakkan Isik and his team of volunteers set up outside the Dublin landmark each Friday.

HAKKAN ISIK had been thinking about volunteering to help the homeless for a while, but wasn’t sure what to do.

He happened to be walking down O’Connell Street one evening and stopped to talk to someone from Newry Helping the Homeless, who hand out soup and other hot food outside the GPO each Friday.

“I wanted to do something that was missing, that they didn’t have already, so I said I wanted to cut hair. They were very happy with that, so we started,” said the Clontarf-based barber.

Now Hakkan has a team of eight who cut hair for free each Friday evening. “We have to give something back to society, you know,” Hakkan told us, when we stopped by to watch him work earlier this month.

Related: ’You’re giving back dignity’: Meet the man who fits dentures for the homeless outside the GPO >

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'We have to give back something': The barber who cuts hair for the homeless outside the GPO

Related: ’You’re giving back dignity’: Meet the man who fits dentures for the homeless outside the GPO >

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

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