France 10 Feb 2016 13:28
Sabrina Lefebvre is a hairdresser who works in the world of luxury and fashion, but in her spare time she visits migrant camps in France to offer them free hair cuts. We followed her in Calais and Dunkirk, and in Paris during a fashion show.
During fashion shows and shoots for luxury magazines, she works between Paris, London, New York or Milan, styling the hair of the supermodels for well known fashion houses. Now based in London, the young woman assists the stars of her profession, like the Japanese hair stylist Akki Shirakawa. She could have been content to continue her ascent in this world of luxury, glitter and glamor.
But last October the path of this hairdresser, who is a true nomad, crossed that of the thousands of migrants who settled in make shift camps in Dunkirk and Calais, some mere miles from the village where she grew up. "I have travelled in poor regions of Brazil, and I know that in the worst circumstances, the poor strive to preserve their appearance. It is a question of dignity, it helps preserve the morale. And I decided to help them with my means."
As soon as she gets the chance, Sabrina spends a few days to settle in the camps to cut the hair of migrants. Through her work the young woman has earned an astonishing popularity within a few months: numerous people come to greet her and are and queuing in front of her makeshift barbershops along muddy roads or in tents.
Nothing discourages them, nor the icy wind, nor the mud, nor the jokes in Kurdish, Arabic or Farsi, that comment the mimicry of customers, who try to make understandable by gestures their hair cut requirements. Even more amazing, Sabrina became met with migrant colleagues; she now calls to wield the clippers or scissors at her side.
