Country’s Causes: The Men’s Groomer Foundation Helps Give the Homeless Second Chances
Schneidman is changing people's lives, one haircut at a time.
When Jason Schneidman was a child, he was with his parents in Tijuana when he saw people on the streets with their hands outstretched, pleading for money. “How did this happen?'” Schneidman thought in the moment, a question he would one day devote his life to solving through The Men’s Groomer Foundation.
As the owner of The Men’s Groomer Shop, a hair salon based in Los Angeles, Schneidman has not only committed to providing stylish cuts to an expansive list of Hollywood clientele including Bruno Mars, Jimmy Fallon and Hugh Jackman, but to homeless individuals living on the streets. “I’m not your typical hair stylist,” Schneidman professes to Sounds Like Nashville. It’s an astute observation for the Seal Beach, Calif. native, who was cutting his friends’ hair at the age of 14 and introducing them to the clothing and hairstyles he saw during his global travels on family vacations. But Schneidman has also faced his share of battles in life, spending much of his young adult years struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. “Where I came from at my lowest low, there’s nowhere but up. My lowest low was hitting 9-1, and having my finger on 1, and taking a crack hit,” he confesses. “Another lowest low is sleeping in my car and not having anybody that cares about me being alone and feeling alone and miserable. That was my bottom was that feeling of knowing that I have so much more to offer myself and my family and life.”
View this post on InstagramThis pic from Father’s Day yesterday! Love my #family 💙🙏 #grateful #blessed my new screen saver!
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But Schneidman rose above the challenges, completing a rehab program and is now 16 years sober. Not long into his sobriety journey, Schneidman attended a recovery meeting where he met Jennifer Aniston’s hair stylist, Chris McMillan. The two clicked, and McMillan offered Schneidman a job at his Beverly Hills studio. During his 18 years at the Chris McMillan Salon, Schneidman quickly garnered a reputation for his high caliber men’s haircuts and has since become the go-to stylist for celebrities such as James Corden. But as his career grew, Schneidman felt an internal void forming. “I realized that I had to continue to help others and not just make it about myself,” he prophesized.
In an effort to help people living on the streets, Schneidman launched The Men’s Groomer Foundation in 2019, donating a portion of the proceeds made from the products sold in his salon to various rehab facilities, much like the one that saved his life. He also puts action behind the dollars, going into the streets of L.A. to work directly with the homeless community by setting up mobile stations and providing free haircuts, in addition to bringing necessities such as food and socks. “I was just doing it my way always through life like a lot of people I meet on the street are doing it their way,” Schneidman expresses. “What I’m looking for is somebody who’s sick and tired of being sick and tired. Everybody has to hit their own bottom, and I’m looking for people like that on the streets that I can see because I know, I’ve been there.”
While Schneidman is deeply fulfilled by his work, he admits that it presents its own set of challenges as he navigates dangerous areas of town, trying to engage with people who have medical or mental health ailments. But Schneidman consistently overcomes these obstacles, knowing how vital human connection for those who are homeless. “If you can connect with somebody and treat them like a human being, one person at a time, that’s how I’ve been successful at what I’ve done,” he hypothesizes. “I think the most important thing is give them an ear and an eye. That’s the best is the human interaction.”
Scrolling through The Men’s Groomer Instagram page, viewers see these transformations happen before their eyes. Like magic, Schneidman polishes the rugged surface, unearthing the beauty of the person underneath. Like many of those who follow Schneidman’s work, Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, Brad Tursi, Whit Sellers and Geoff Sprung are so inspired by Schneidman’s efforts that they put him at the center of the music video for their current single, “Some People Do.” Old Dominion met Schneidman in 2015 when he served as the stylist on a photo shoot for their debut album Meat and Candy. Impressed by his work, the band continued to hire him, their relationship quickly blossoming from professional to a brotherly bond. “When I met these guys, they were so down to earth and so much cooler than a lot of the people I was working with. I just fell in love with them,” Schneidman recalls. “I did the same thing for them that I did for my friends when we were 14.”
Ramsey was scrolling through Instagram one night from the bunk bed of the band’s tour bus when he came across Schneidman’s page, awed by the photos and videos that range from Schneidman’s slick haircuts to providing a person on the street with water and medicine. The bandmates believed that Schneidman’s story aligned with the meaning of the song’s lyrics about a person who recognizes their past wrongdoings and changes their ways for the better in hopes of earning a second chance. But there is one piece of Schneidman’s story in particular that resonated with Ramsey. “What struck me most is when he’s telling his story, he kind of glosses over it, but he said he asked for help, and I think that’s such an important part of the story that people don’t realize they can do,” Ramsey shares in a phone interview with Sounds Like Nashville.
After capturing Schneidman’s story on camera, the band took their support for him and The Men’s Groomer Foundation one step further by volunteering at an event for the homeless in Venice Beach in February 2020. While The Men’s Groomer staff provided haircuts, the country stars passed out pizza, clothing and water to attendees. “It was such a sweet little honest day, and watching their faces light up when you just engage them and talk to them, and then as they go under that transformation and [Schneidman] cleans them up and talks to them and they get a big smile on their face that they probably don’t get talked to or treated like that very often. It’s so face level,” Ramsey asserts. “I think everybody sees homeless people in a certain light and they walk right past them or ignore them, and Jason doesn’t do that. He told us ‘I’m scared every single time I do this, and you’ve just got to push past that point and then you see them as people and you hear their story and they just want connection and [to be] looked at as a human being,’” Ramsey continues. “When you break down that wall and talk to them, it will change your perception of homelessness in general.”
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The band experienced this firsthand when they met a man who used to work in the music industry as a road crew member for various artists. While sharing photographs with the group from his days on the road, he told them the tragic story about how he and his wife couldn’t afford to pay for both the rent and her life-saving heart surgery. When he chose to pay for the surgery, they ultimately lost their home and were forced to live on the street. “He made it a point to say not everybody is out on the street because of an addiction like a bottle or a needle. Some of it’s just misfortune,” Ramsey reflects on the man’s harrowing story. “It’s really heartbreaking stuff, but he was so appreciative that we would take the time to hear that story and we just thought ‘this guy could be one of our crew members, he could be out on the road with us.’ It was a very strong story.”
The band left Los Angeles with full hearts and a drive to help, taking the lessons learned with them back to Nashville. Compelled by Chris Young’s donation to the local homeless shelter, Nashville Rescue Mission, Old Dominion partnered with Boxed Water to donate water to the organization – a direct result of their experience working at Schneidman’s event. “Having that one day there showed us how little it takes for us to make a big impact,” Ramsey acknowledges.
Schneidman also feels the effects of his work each time he helps a client enter treatment or when another reaches out to tell him that after getting a haircut at one of The Men’s Groomer stations, she’s now six months pregnant and starting a family. As Schneidman continues on his journey of helping those who are homeless, with ambitions of establishing housing and his own sober living facilities, his mission will be fulfilled when society sees individuals who are homeless for who they truly are – human beings. “How I stay sober is by doing estimable acts. When I go out and I do estimable acts, it gives me self-esteem. It’s way greater than me, but if I can just help one person,” Schneidman proclaims, “they may have a second chance.”
