Though Shea Serrano’s Twitter account is usually home to his hilarious anecdotes about his family or his take on sports and hip-hop, this weekend he used his platform to better the lives of others. It all started on August 12 when the author of The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed – a New York Times best-selling book – informed his followers that he was selling Russell Westbrook bookmarks.
Shea has become as popular on Twitter for his writing as for the illustrated bookmarks that he and Arturo Torres churn out. So people probably didn’t suspect anything when his “Vengeance Russell” bookmarks cropped up. But a day later, he let them know that he’d actually tricked them into doing something nice. Using the money from the bookmarks, he paid seven barbers to offer free haircuts to any school-aged Houston kids going back to school.
“I remember one year I went to school on that first day and didn’t have a haircut and all my wack ass friends made fun of me endlessly for it,” he wrote on Twitter. “That whole year was a waste, basically. There was just no coming back from it. I mean, whatever, it wasn’t like some serious heartbreaking shit – it was mostly a funny thing – but still. I wouldn’t want for that to happen to my kids, no any other kids if I can help it. So I talked to Nick, a barber homie of mine who runs a shop is South Houston, the low-income area of town where I worked when i was teaching. He said I could hire all of his barbers for a few hours on their day off (Sunday) and he’d open up the shop for us to use.”
Shea’s enthusiasm even got other people to participate. A caterer also offered free food at the event, which took place this Sunday, and a DJ played music as kids got their hair cut. According to Shea’s Twitter, the barbers kept working far beyond the four hours they committed to. Because the line never stopped, the barbers just kept taking in new customers. They ended up taking in more than 150 students.
Shea documented the whole thing on Twitter, and it’s really one one of the sweetest things you’ll see today. Check it out below: