Features / hair
The transformative power of a haircut
Jess Palfrey was 15 years old when she realised the truly transformative power of hair.
The teenager from near Taunton was studying at a military boarding school when she underwent what she now reflects on as an “extremely traumatic experience”.
“They thought because I had come out as a lesbian and other women were coming out too, I was forcing them to be gay and creating some kind of ‘lesbian cult’,” Jess explained.
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“They excluded me from college and decided to make a point out of me by shaving all my hair off in front of everybody in my class.
“It was completely horrible but it made me realise the power of hair and the potential for it to be used for good.”
Fast-forward almost 15 years and the now 29-year-old has built the foundations of a hair empire with three salons in the South West, an app where clients can book haircuts on demand and a growing army of hairdressers and barbers who champion inclusivity and affordability.
It’s been a journey that has flung her to far corners of the world from the Middle East and the Colosseum in Rome to base camp on Mount Everest.
The 29-year-old has cut hair across the world – photo by dooo
Jess was set for a career in the army as an engineer but began training to be a hairdresser alongside her university degree and, once completed, bought a one-way ticket to New Zealand and travelled the world, funded through her trade.
“I went on a training deployment to Kenya and we got in a rough spot with this Afghan gang,” she said, explaining her exit from the military.
“I was in like 40 degree heat getting shot and I thought: ‘What am I doing? I think it was that moment when I realised the army was not who I am at all.”
Jess said telling her parents, who encouraged her to pursue a military career, that she wanted to leave the army was “scarier than coming out as gay”, but she knew it was the right decision and set off to travel the world.
“I planned to be there for six months, but I ended up being away for four years,” Jess laughed.
“It was incredible. I went from being basically caged in prison to roaming the other side of the world in a camper van, meeting people and doing all these crazy things.”
“Then it came to me: this is what life is supposed to be like.”
Jess spent these years of her 20s cutting hair of new-found clients in youth hostels and within the travelling community in tourist destinations.
On her return to Bristol, she got a job at a traditional barbershop as a fully trained hairdresser but she quickly became exasperated at the gendered nature of hairdressing.
She thought to herself: “Why is the industry so backwards? Why is it so gendered? Why is it that if you’ve got boobs, it’s suddenly £50 minimum for a haircut, even though it’s going to take me exactly the same amount of time as a skin fade on a man?
“It’s even so defined when you are in training. You learn to cut men’s or women’s.”
“We should just be cutting hair for hair, not cutting hair because of people’s gender.”
It was these frustrations that inspired Jess to start her own salon. dooo on North Street in Bedminster prides itself on providing inclusive and affordable haircuts, priced on how much work the haircut entails, not the gender of the client.
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After a successful crowdfunding campaign, Jess also created her own app which she describes as “uber for haircuts”.
The dooo app provides genderless haircuts on demand, meaning customers can book a same day appointment and have a stylist travel to them. It also has an optional section where clients can write down any conditions or special requirements they have which helps match them to an appropriate stylist.
“The reason I created the app was to help people,” she said.
“When I started doing my haircuts, I realised how many people weren’t getting the haircut because they didn’t like the salon environment.
“Anyone who might be neurodivergent, autistic, or have social anxiety can stop people from being comfortable being there.”
Jess has recently opened a second salon in Old Market and has plans to open a third in Exeter. It’s a hectic lifestyle and she admitted she often works more than 60 hours a week, but, to her, it’s all worth it.
“I absolutely love the impact of cutting hair,” she said. “When I cut the hair of the homeless or do a gender-affirming haircut, I truly feel like I’m making a difference to people by making them feel better about themselves.”
To find out more about dooo, visit www.dooo.co.uk
This feature originally appeared in the latest Bristol24/7 quarterly magazine, available free across our city
Main photo: dooo
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