At the age of 17, Mojo Stewart had achieved everything he wanted in life. “So far as I was concerned. Everything else is just gravy for me,” he says. Now, he’s giving all his energy to the community.
A children’s entertainer of 36 years, Mojo has also become a resident street-barber, volunteering twice a week at the same spots in Angel, Finsbury Park and Wood Green.
Being an entertainer “allowed me to see lots of different sides of society and people. I realised the only thing that’s really important is people; the interactions that we have with people.
“I don’t see people as commodities. I see them as parts of energy that I can flow to or help pump up sometimes when they’re feeling low,” Mojo says.
Outside Angel tube station, Mojo has set up one of his “Groove, Groom and Grub” spots, where he dances to funk and disco music from a streetside speaker (he’s an entertainer at heart) and cuts people’s hair for free.
Businessmen, bus drivers, council workers, homeless men and women, American tourists, children with their parents – Mojo has cut everyone’s hair from the streetside.
Mojo got a “taste for cutting hair” when he was working at a soup kitchen in Stratford. “The charity seemed to be more interested in collecting money than delivering a service,” he says.
They didn’t like that he cut the hair of people who weren’t homeless for free, Mojo says. “I just cut the hair of anybody who wants their hair cut. I’m not a barber, but if you want me to cut your hair, I will cut your hair.”
So, he thought to himself, “I’ve got a bike. I’ve got all my own equipment. I’ll just go riding out and just do it.” Three years down the line, Mojo is still cutting hair and certainly now knows what he’s doing.
Being raised in a children’s home gave Mojo a different “idea of values and all that sort of jazz”. He says that there has never been much that he’s really wanted, and since he’s done “alright in terms of [his] own personal mental health”, he now spends his time giving back to the community.
Mojo lived in Islington during his teenage years, where his childhood in care came to an end and he moved onto college. A lover of the borough for its cosmopolitan mix of people, Mojo says the spot outside Angel tube station was ideal when he started, as there were a lot of “homeless people sleeping here and the bank was closed”.
“Every part of life comes through this part. It’s like, for me, a home from home or family that I didn’t have,” he says.
Covid-19 has meant that Mojo no longer uses a wet razor, so everything has to be a buzz cut. He is taking Covid-19 safety precautions too, from having disinfectant sprays to a visor. However, hairdressing is still against government rules at the moment.
Mojo says the police’s approach “is very different in different boroughs. Islington is different from WoodGreen, which is different to Stratford”.
Mojo says that sometimes police come and stop him in Islington and sometimes they don’t. A lot of people tell him that he doesn’t have to stop, but he says: “I don’t want to cause any fuss. I don’t want to have any hassle with the police, because once it’s all over, I’d like to be able to continue with no hassle, so if they say stop, I stop and just go.”
Between haircutting sessions, Mojo energetically dances on the pathway. People smile and nod their heads along to the music as they pass. “I decided when I came out [to cut hair on the streets] that I would never tell anybody my name because I didn’t want anybody to think that I was promoting the children’s entertainment side of things”, he says.
Instead of using the routines he performs as an entertainer, Mojo creates new dances solely for the streets. “My theme tune for while I’m out here is Blame it on the Boogie”, he says, to which he teaches his clients a three step routine.
Before I know it, his charm and enthusiasm has infected me and I’m dancing along to the Jackson Five’s song on the streets of Islington.
