CRUZ SALAS (THEY/THEM)
Barber
Portland, Oregon
The barber school I went to was in downtown San Diego, and the haircuts were $5, so affordable that it really served that community. I was always pretty quiet, but it got to the point where I was doing like seven or eight haircuts a day. I was, like, “Oh, I really have to talk to people for anywhere from seven to 10 hours straight!” That’s the only taxing part about my job, the social aspect. It can be a very intense thing to be in control of — how someone is going to look, and how they’re going to feel about themselves. Sometimes their haircut is that deep. It depends on the person, how nervous they are, how much they want to open up, but a lot of times, I have some very heartfelt conversations. It feels really good to see how pumped they are once they get the mirror and they see how they are, looking at their new haircut.
We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the August 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “#IAMTHEWEST.”
