Jackson, United States, Oct 2 (AFP/APP):As an icebreaker, Antonio Wiggins often begins by talking sports. But the conversations between the Jackson, Mississippi, barber and his customers, African-American men, tend to turn very quickly to more weighty subjects. Wiggins, who is also Black, caters not only to his patrons’ hair but also to their well-being. He plies his trade at Trendsetters Barber College in Jackson, which is the largest city in the southern state and has a population that is 80 percent African-American. Wiggins said he tends to the grooming needs of people from all walks of life. “Everybody sits in this chair,” he said. “I have a guy who comes that is a doctor. I’ve got the pastor. We get the drug dealer,” Wiggins said. “I cut a guy on a Friday. He went on to kill someone on the Saturday.” Anthony Kelley, who runs Trendsetters, which also serves as a teaching school, said barbers in the American South are “like pillars in our community.” Wiggins and Kelley recently joined “The Confess Project,” a coalition of Black barbers seeking to cater to the mental health needs of African-American men in a region of the country scarred by decades of racism. … Continue reading Mississippi barbershop offers haircut and ‘shoulder to lean on’