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Getting your hair cut at this barbershop
could change your life and improve your health.
- What's up, Dale? How you doing, man?
- All right, man, what's going on?
- I'm good. How 'bout yourself?
There's two businesses in the urban community
that can truly change
the trajectory of that community:
one being a barbershop, the other being a church.
[rich laughter]
God is good, man!
- Gaulien Smith is a barber on a mission.
- Gee!
- To his friends, he's simply known as 'Gee.'
- I would like to think Gee's Clippers
is just fulfilling my mission
what a barbershop should be in the community.
Yeah, he's 77 and still cutting.
- Gee has run a barbershop for nearly 30 years.
- All right, all right, all right!
When I started Gee's Clippers back June 1st, 1995,
I was myself, along with four barbers.
And now, here I am.
I have 28 barbers and stylists.
Twenty-three years ago. - Twenty-three years ago.
- I was right across the street from you. - Right across the street.
- I have one of the largest barbershops in the Midwest,
nestled right here in the central city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
- It's a place where Gee feels the need
to give back to his hometown.
- I definitely came from humble beginnings,
very humble beginnings.
I started cutting hair
at the tender age of 12 years old. [chuckles]
The rest is history.
Really? Okay.
- Making history is what Gee continues to do
because, in so many ways,
this isn't your typical barbershop.
[crowd cheers]
- I've been a barber of
probably two to three hundred Milwaukee Bucks players
over the years.
I love those guys!
They made Gee Clippers an official partner.
- That would be one unique feature, but there's more.
- Gee: The building used to be an old bank.
It has a lot of history.
Twenty-plus-foot ceilings.
The vault is still here from when it was a bank
back in the early 1900s.
- Gee.
- Yet, that still isn't what Gee is most proud of.
His barbershop has become a beacon of hope.
- At some points, I have roughly 80 to 90 people waiting.
Let's educate them. Let's inform them.
Let's give them resources.
Start doing, you know, different exercise
to keep you active.
So, this is your accountability partner.
I have a health clinic, Gee's MKE Wellness Clinic.
- It might be the only health clinic in the country
located in a bank vault in the middle of a barbershop.
- They do a phenomenal job
at checking individual's blood pressure, blood glucose levels.
We give COVID vaccinations, flu shots.
- The mission of wellness and the need to help others
is personal for Gee.
- My dad died from colon cancer,
and that's one of the most preventable cancers.
He died way too young.
Like, I gotta get my blood pressure checked.
You mind?
Guys are dying at such an alarming rate
from hypertension and different cancers.
And it's mainly because they're finding out they have it
in the ninth inning.
- Happy thoughts, happy thoughts,
and relax your arm for me.
- That's a lot; that's high!
I know, it is very high.
I really wanted people to know that
they're in a place that truly care.
- All right, see you later. - All righty.
- Thank you for stopping in. - Thank you.
They're in a place that's more than a barbershop.
Actually, when I post on social media,
I hashtag 'More than a barbershop.'
Seven years?! You didn't tell me that.
I didn't know that! - Yeah.
- It's a barbershop that is a cut above the rest,
built on the shoulders of a man from humble beginnings.
- My accomplishments definitely makes me feel good.
[rich laughter]
I live by the old saying,
"To whom much is given, much is required."
So, I feel like I am just doing what I am supposed to do.
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