Haircuts for the Homeless bring stories of Spokane’s streets to life

Between running from domestic violence, losing her job and trying to find a way to provide for her child, Serene Bunch has not had much time to care for herself. Or her hair.

“The left side (is difficult),” the right-handed Bunch said, with a laugh. “Because I do it at an angle, so I do it feathered, but I’m just not getting it the way I want it.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Bunch went to the Spokane Convention Center to get her bright-pink hair trimmed exactly the way she wants it. As she sat in the makeshift waiting room, Bunch occasionally checked her text messages and smiled. She had a first date planned for later that night. Much like a teenage girl getting ready for prom, Bunch was giddy for a makeover and a fun night out on the town.

“He’s a good-looking man,” she said. “He hunts. He’s a photographer. He’s got his stuff together, which is what I’m looking for.”

Bunch is one of approximately 300 men and women who showed up to the convention center Wednesday to get a haircut at the annual Spokane Homeless Connect event. In total, the convention center saw just shy of 1,900 people walk through the big glass doors to receive a variety of legal, career, housing, veterinary and medical assistance.

While most of Bunch’s motivation for attending the event was to get a haircut, she also came for another reason – to get ink pens.

Bunch is a poet and loves to journal. She writes about justice or the lack thereof, the unfortunate circumstances clouding her life, her disdain for the Big Pharma industry; but mostly, she writes poetry about the love she has for her son.

She said she used to stay up all night with a machete in her hand. She would zip tie the opening of her tent shut and stand guard as her 14-year-old son slept next to her. During the day, she napped.

“If anybody tried to come into my tent, I was gonna chop their head off,” Bunch said.

Other times, when the shelters were full, the bridge by the river was lined with tents, and there was nowhere else to go, she and her son would sleep behind a dumpster across the street from a Motel 6. When the sprinklers jetted on in the middle of the night, her son would wake up and start crying. His sobbing would make her start crying.

After a winter of sleeping in a tent by the river, Bunch found a spot at St. Margaret’s Shelter. On Oct. 17, she and her son moved into a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment. Her new place overlooks the same river she used to sleep near. She gave her son the bedroom.

Jayda Pimsanguan, who graduates from the two-year program at Spokane Community College in March, joined 26 of her peers on Wednesday to give haircuts to the less fortunate.

“Giving back to the community in any way that you can, even if it’s something small, like giving someone a haircut, does make a big difference,” said Pimsanguan, a 19-year-old cosmetology student.

For the past four years, the cosmetology school based at SCC has set up shop on the upper level of the convention center once a year. In the morning, about 30 hairdressers-in-training grabbed scissors and hair dryers and got to work.

The first client Pimsanguan saw was a man in his 50s. She said he thanked her profusely, smiled often and told her that he was getting his haircut so that he could get a new ID. His previous ID was lost “many, many years ago.”

Helping clients with their hair not only makes Pimsanguan feel good about the work she has done, but it also provides excellent practice – the kind you cannot get from working on a mannequin.

Pimsanguan said she was nervous to cut the hair inside his ears, as she did not want to accidentally cut him and make him bleed. The man, she said, insisted that she was doing just fine and that she should not be afraid to hurt him. The end result was a transformed man ready for a new ID.

With close to 500 total volunteers and 125 booths from myriad organizations in Spokane, Aileen Luppert, a member of the planning committee for Spokane Homeless Connect, had her hands full on Wednesday.

Since 2020, Luppert said the event has been hosted at the convention center. Before that, it was held at a small church before moving to the Salvation Army.

Last year, they counted 1,900 guests. They expected a similar number in 2026. Luppert pointed out lesser-known booths at the event, such as Warrant Fest, as she went down the list of services available. If a person missed a court hearing and has an outstanding warrant, that person can get their warrant quashed and set a new hearing date, she said. Last year, 100 warrants were crushed.

“We have found, because we do an exit survey, that about 20% or more (of guests) are housed,” Luppert said. “It’s just that their housing is unstable.”

She said some folks came just to get food for their dog. Paying rent or buying dog food can be an impossible choice for someone facing financial hardship. While the event offered dog food, free neutering and spaying services were also available, along with winter coats for animals.

Christopher Birch went to Spokane Homeless Connect to get a haircut and to find a purple coat for his border collie, Millie.

Birch suffers from regular seizures. He said Millie knows when he is about to have a seizure and will nudge him with her snout until he lays down or finds some sort of help.

Because of this, Birch is extremely protective of his dog. The pair have been attacked before by aggressive dogs, and Birch is always quick to shield Millie from any danger that approaches.

Before living on the street, Birch said he went to Central Washington University. He moved to Spokane from Ellensburg to go to law school, which had been a dream of his since he was 12 years old.

That dream is long gone.

“You wake up, you gotta find a place you can (go to the bathroom),” Birch said, describing his average day. “Are you gonna dig a hole? … Are you gonna buy something or are you gonna try and sneak into a bathroom? That’s No. 1. No. 2, do I have water? Am I hungry? Do I have …”

At this point in the rundown, Birch’s sentence was cut short by the arrival of a barking pit bull. Birch kneeled down, grabbed Millie, and folded his arm over her and glared at the lock-jawed dog and its owner as they walked by. When the threat passed, Birch stood back up.

He continued:

“That’s what it’s like to be homeless, bro.”