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How This Seattle Barbershop Is Giving LGBT Homeless Kids A Fresh Start

Rudy's Barbershop is a longtime ally of the LGBT community.

Since its founding over 25 years ago, Rudy's Barbershop has not only been dedicated to giving great hair cuts, but also to supporting Seattle's LGBT community.

“Since the day we opened our doors, Rudy’s has been an ally of the L.G.B.T.Q. community," CEO Brendon Lynch told Vanity Fair. "We’re proud of that legacy and continually try to find new ways we can build upon that.”

Though this support has taken on different forms over the years, the shop's current outreach involves providing showers and cleaning products to LGBT homeless youth in collaboration with the It Gets Better project.

"Homelessness disproportionately affects the L.G.B.T.Q. community, with almost 40 percent of homeless youth identifying as L.G.B.T.Q.,” said Brian Wenke, executive director of the It Gets Better Project. “When considering the complexity of the issue, it is easy to lose sight of the small day-to-day essentials that can have a big impact on someone’s life—like access to personal-care products.”

To ensure that more and more people are able to get their hands on these commodities, Rudy's has unveiled a venture to go along with its latest product launch.

For every purchase of the brand's new line of shampoos and conditioners, the barber shop will donate a week's worth of the same product to a shelter that serves LGBT youth.

“We knew we wanted to do something for the L.G.B.T.Q. community with this launch. In our work with various L.G.B.T.Q. organizations, we were made aware that with our products and services we could make an impact for an extremely at-risk segment of this population, homeless youth,” Lynch remarked. "[The] It Gets Better Project‘s charity organization was a natural partner given their scale and our previous partnerships with them.”

Rudy's currently has 27 shop locations throughout the United States, where customers can get a snip and buy the 1-2-3 showering system to give back to LGBT youth.

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