White Vermont Barbar, Mike Aldrich Under Fire After Refusing to Trim Hair of Black Man, Dr. Darryl Fisher

White Vermont barber, Mike Aldrich, under fire for refusing to trim the hair of black man, Dr. Darryl Fisher.

Bellows Falls, Vt., barber Mike Aldrich is under fire for refusing to trim the hair of a black man, Dr. Darryl Fisher. The barber said he is just no good at cutting black people's hair. Isn't that a fact that some white barbers and hairstylists just can't cut black hair and many of us wouldn't really walk into a white establishment to get our hair done? Well, Dr. Fisher begs to differ and said he believes there was something race-related about the way Aldrich, who's white, turned him away when he ducked into Mike's Barber Shop asking for a trim one day last month, according to media reports.

The story begins Oct. 5, when Fisher, a physician from Taos, N.M., was visiting Bellows Falls, a village of about 3,500 residents along the Connecticut River, and walked up the steps into Aldrich's storefront barber shop.

Aldrich was playing cards with a friend, and Fisher asked if the barber was in. Aldrich said no, and Fisher went on his way. Later, walking past, Fisher saw through the front window that the man who'd told him the barber was out was cutting the hair of a white customer. Source

This is scarcely new territory for us to tread. The reality is many white barbers and hairstylist struggle on so many levels to cut and style black hair, which is generally thicker and curlier than the hair of whites.