Philadelphia’s homeless will be able to get a full beauty parlor experience next week when artist Jody Wood’s Beauty in Transition brings a traveling salon around the city.
“I want to learn about how homelessness is approached in different communities. Homelessness is a nationwide problem,” Wood told NBC10. “It’s not limited to just a few cities.”
Wood will be in Philadelphia from June 21 to 28. She will be stationed at homeless shelters in Center City, West Philadelphia and Spring Garden.
Volunteers will staff a truck with a makeshift salon inside, providing residents and members of the city’s homeless shelters with shampoo, cut, color and styling services.
Since Philadelphia is growing rapidly, Wood said, homelessness could become a bigger problem for the city in the near future. This is the first time Wood has brought her service to Philadelphia.
“Hair and beauty services are not essential to survival, but they are essential to identity,” Wood said. “Every human wants to feel beautiful and cared for.”
Wood started the project in 2006 in Lawrence, Kansas and has previously served the homeless populations in Denver, Colorado and New York City.
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“The project can really be replicated everywhere because economic inequality is all over the place,” Wood said.
