Barbershop Talk Ain’t Therapy… But It’s a Start

Barbershop Talk Ain’t Therapy… But It’s a Start
By Dr. WiFine for The Blue Cafe Magazine

Barbershops been holding us down long before therapy was ever an option.

It’s the only place some Black men feel comfortable enough to say more than “I’m good.” It’s where we go to get lined up and low-key lifted. Where jokes fly, debates get heated, and real life slips into the conversation somewhere between the clippers and the neck duster. But let’s be honest—while barbershop talk feels good in the moment, it’s not always enough to heal what we’re carrying.

We’ve mastered the art of covering pain with punchlines. We’ll talk for hours about sports, women, and what’s wrong with the world, but barely touch what’s going on inside. Ask a brother about his mental health and you’ll either get a joke, a deflection, or a deep sigh followed by, “I don’t even know where to start.”

That’s because a lot of us were never taught how.

Most Black men weren’t raised to sit with emotions. We were told to tough it out, suck it up, and “man up.” Vulnerability was seen as weakness. So instead of therapy, we got barbershop banter. Instead of emotional honesty, we got respectability. And the truth is, a lot of us are hurting in silence while smiling in selfies.

But here’s the thing: barbershop talk ain’t therapy—but it’s a start. It’s a door cracked open. A place where trust is already built. If we can trust our barber to push our hairline back just right, we can trust him—or the shop energy—to make space for conversations that go deeper than who’s winning the playoffs.

Healing has to be normalized in the same space where masculinity is praised. That means checking in with your boys beyond, “You straight?” That means not clowning someone for opening up. That means knowing it’s okay to say, “Bro, I’ve been feeling off lately,” without shame.

We don’t all have a therapist on speed dial. But if the barbershop is where we feel seen, then let that be where we start speaking.

Because the truth is, we don’t need permission to heal. We just need space. And sometimes, that space already exists—we just have to go deeper than the surface.

👥 Barbershop talk is cool.

🧠 Mental check-ins are grown man business.

#MensMentalHealthMatters #FromTheChairToTheCouch #BarbershopRealness #CheckYourMindLikeYouCheckYourSugar #TheBlueCafeMen