Page 16 - South Mississippi Living - May, 2022

COAST NOTE
A Luxury Barbering Ministry Brings Hope to the Coast
story by Gabbie Bowden photo courtesy of Surrendered Studios
“You say crazy, I say – try me, girl!” In
2021, Dallas Barbee knew God wanted her
to relocate from Washington state to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and begin a barbering ministry. She and her family originally planned to move in two years, but God had a different schedule. He made it happen in two months.
Almost half a year later, her barbershop, Surrendered Studios, is a beacon of hope in the Biloxi area. The studio’s pay-it-forward concept gives those struggling financially a luxury barbershop experience at little or no cost. Many clients are without permanent housing or in the throes of addiction. “They ask how it works, and I tell them someone from TikTok paid for your service,” Dallas says. “We’re still being paid for our time and the value of our labor, but someone else gets the blessing.”
Dallas’s own experience with addiction and recovery plays a large role in her work. “I
was still in addiction when I began barbering school,” she says. “Cosmetology has been in my life since I was 18, but I could never find my place in salon culture. When a barber college opened in Spokane, I felt like I needed to go and get licensed strictly as a barber. To be honest, I almost got kicked out; I was still drinking and using. Shortly after I graduated,
I got a DUI, and that DUI changed my life. I sat inside that jail cell for a long time thinking something has to change.” Through barbering, something did change. “Slowly, the people in my chair became more important than what
I was struggling with, and I could start to see God again.”
Now, she changes others’ lives through her luxury studio, running a worship and prayer recovery night every Monday. “A church doesn’t have to look like four walls with a cross on top,” she says. “Anywhere we are walking is holy if Jesus is with us. Anyone can use their business to bless a community.” Her “ministry
first, barbershop second” message reaches farther than the Gulf Coast. Dallas has been blessed with over 80,000 followers on TikTok, a number that grows daily. More than that, many of her current staff found Dallas on the platform and felt led to join her ministry in Biloxi. “Callie, who’s currently listed on our website, is coming down from St. Louis in a few months,” she says. “Callie commented
on a TikTok saying she felt like she needed to talk to me. We scheduled a call, and now she’s moving here after her son finishes the school year. This morning, I had that same call with someone from Connecticut.”
As the barbershop grows, so does Dallas’s vision for the future. “Our short-term goal
is to reach out and love on the community, but we have lofty long-term goals. We want to maintain relationships and identify people who are seeking that internal transformation. We don’t want to just provide a free
haircut, we want to help them walk into recovery, locate and secure permanent housing, put them through barber school, and ultimately provide them a
job within our ministry.” God’s work in Dallas’s
life led her here, to
South Mississippi,
which she considers a
gift. “I’ve never lived
in a place where I get
to look at the ocean
every day, but the
kindness of people
has been our most beautiful encounter.”
Her dedicated service
to God and Coastal Mississippi certainly makes the community more and more beautiful each day.
Surrendered Studios
2337 Pass Rd., Unit B, Biloxi
509.868.0947 www.surrenderedstudios.com
16 | May 2022
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