The kindest cut of all

When does a cut not hurt? When it heals.

Thirty-year-old Mark Bustos strives to heal people living the hard life with the soft touch of a good haircut.

He believes that a good haircut gives people a good-hair day, literally and figuratively. And with the skills of an Edward Scissorhands, he tries to reshape the life of the downtrodden and the homeless. Lock by lock.

A Filipino-American born in the USA with roots in Pampanga, Mark inadvertently started his advocacy in 2012, during a visit to his girlfriend Lala Javier’s hometown in Pampanga. For sentimental reasons, he and Lala (also a hairstylist) visited her late father’s barber. Something clicked in his mind and he decided to dedicate for a day one chair in the humble barbershop to those who couldn’t afford a haircut. Those who immediately availed themselves of his services were street kids and vagrants.

Mark at the Haven for Children in Alabang, where he donated P34,000.

Mark, the middle child of Jun and Marilyn Bustos of New Jersey, didn’t make a centavo out of this endeavor but he left the barbershop “with this rewarding feeling.”

From then on, wherever his job as a stylist for Three Squares Salon in New York City would take him — from Jamaica to Los Angeles, from Miami to the Big Apple — he would give free haircuts to the destitute and the homeless. Sundays would be reserved exclusively for them.

(From left) Mark Bustos and Lala Javier with relatives Nora and Domingo Bonifacio.

On Sundays in NYC, his only day off from work, he would choose a street at random and head for it. With Lala to help him, he would look for beggars and homeless people and offer them a haircut — on the spot. No strings attached. Usually, the homeless person’s suitcase would be his barber’s chair. Passersby would look at Mark giving the homeless a good cut and they would reward him with a smile of admiration and gratitude.

“It’s a beautiful thing to be able to inspire others to do something of significance to other people. When I see onlookers smile at me, I know I have planted a seed in their hearts,” smiles Mark.

No preaching necessary for the gospel of Mark Bustos.

* * *

I met Mark in his aunt Nora Bonifacio’s salon, Final Touch, on Aguirre Ave. in BF Homes Parañaque. That afternoon, he was the guest stylist and all the money he would make in one afternoon would be donated to the Haven for Children in Alabang (founded by Gina de Venecia and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.). Mark charged 10 times more than the usual price for the haircuts for this particular afternoon and chalked up a hair-raising P34,000 for a few hours’ work. The following day, he and his uncle Domingo Bonifacio and aunt Nora turned the amount over to the Haven.

Mark recalls that he was only seven when he realized he wanted to cut hair and a teenager when he realized he could make a razor-sharp difference with this talent.

He started by cutting the hair of his parents (immediately, Jun and Marilyn knew they would be in good hands), then his fellow ninth graders, then the entire basketball team.

Mark also found out that his scissors had the uncanny effect of addition, not subtraction.

“I knew I had a special gift. My parents’ garage became a special place to hang out no matter what clique you belonged to in school or in the neighborhood. Because in my presence everyone would get along — or no haircut! I could bring people together in a positive way,” says Mark, who accepted donations of $3 per haircut, which he would funnel to charity.

The author interviews Mark Bustos at Final Touch Salon in Parañaque City.

For college, he majored in Business Administration but ultimately followed his childhood dream. There was no splitting hair on this, and so he took up additional courses in hairstyling till he obtained his license in Cosmetology. Even after he was hired by a top salon, Mark continued walking the streets of New York for the kindest cut of all — a free haircut for the homeless.

“A good haircut gives a person dignity and self-confidence — whether it’s for free or for $150,” he points out.

Soon, his clients — who included people from CNN, the Today Show and Huffington Post — learned about Mark’s not-so-secret life on the streets. They featured his unique outreach work almost simultaneously, and the news of this Good Samaritan with Scissors went viral.

He was making a mark.

* * *

While in the Philippines, Mark would offer at random a free haircut to homeless people he would see. He confides that in every homeless man he meets, he sees his lolo.

His maternal grandfather (Cresencio Capili, also from Pampanga) was a homeless man when he first lived in the US. “He never went to school. At a young age, he became a street vendor in the Philippines in order to support his family. When he first arrived in the US, he lived underneath a shopping mall and worked in a bowling alley till he was able to get every single member of his family, except one, to join him in the US.”

Mark Bustos looks more like a rock star than a hairdresser with his muscled and tattooed arms and build. One notices that he wears a rosary bracelet on his wrist.

“I try to go to Church every Sunday, but when it becomes difficult to go to Church because I try to give as many people a free haircut, I tell myself, ‘I tried to bring the Church to the streets instead’.”

By living the Gospel of Christ, according to Mark. (You may e-mail me at [email protected].)