‘I cut hair on the streets for free and put on festivals for homeless’ | UK News

Yet as he says on his Instagram page, it’s not just about hair – there’s a mental health aspect to it too. 

Four years ago, a woman brought over her partially blind husband to Mojo for a haircut. 

‘The man was very quiet, very soft-spoken. He seemed to want to help me,

‘He brought down a razor – one of those free ones – so that I could help do other people’s faces with it.

‘I couldn’t use it, but it was just a thought that he had these ideas which made him a helpful person,’ Mojo recalled.

Every two weeks, the man would visit Mojo for a haircut, but this time, without his wife. He couldn’t speak English very well, but they communicated through hand gestures. 

After a while, he was a different person. He began to smile and opened up to Mojo. Yet one day, he stopped coming. 

Then his wife – who Mojo affectionately calls auntie Sharma – went to see him.

‘She said: “Mojo, you don’t remember me. I brought my husband down.” And that’s how we got our connection.’ 

She told Mojo that her husband had died. 

Auntie Sharma would pay Mojo visits, and for the first three months they mainly spoke about the loss of her husband.

‘His his wife said that he was very intelligent. He was an accountant before he went blind,’ Mojo said.

Then over time, auntie Sharma – a small but chatty 77-year-old – and Mojo would pop to McDonald’s and chat about everything. There’s still sadness in her, but now she jokes a lot.

‘She’s with me on the street, we’re out there in public, but she can sit down, knowing that it’s like a safe space,’ he said.

‘We are a street family.’

During his hair-cutting sessions, you’ll always hear music. He got his love of dancing from being raised in a care home. 

‘The first time I felt that I was able to express myself was when I was about four years old,’ he said. 

A band wearing costumes came in to play drums for the kids.

‘As soon as I saw it, I just felt so alive,’ he recalled.

Four-year-old Mojo quickly ran into the bathroom and shaped a towel to look like their costumes, and danced along with them. 

‘I’m not a dancer, but it’s my happy place,’ he said. He shares his happy place with everyone – each year, he creates a dance that other people can do with him. 

One day in between the dancing, Mojo said he was cutting a man’s hair: ‘He said to me, “You know what Mojo, you make people feel valued.” 

‘And it was after he said that, to me, that’s when I came up with the idea – I would love to put on an event to show you how valued you are. 

‘But I’m just a person, I’m just me.’

From that day on, the idea of a Groove Groom Grub festival blossomed. Lush gave him £500, with which he bought some food, sleeping bags and rucksacks. He also received some soap from the store, which he put in the goodie bags.

He didn’t advertise his event, he just told the people he was helping so other people who didn’t need help wouldn’t know about it. He hosted the first festival on July 19 2023, and the second on August 23 2023.

Mojo hires the homeless to run the festival, too – £10 an hour for a DJ, and for someone else to keep the area clean. Up to 20 people turned up for his first event.