Hope from a haircut: Meet the Modesto barber making a difference
Just a few years ago, Paul “Sammy” Samsin was sleeping on the streets, trying to survive from one day to the next. Today, he is on the same streets, offering haircuts and hope to Modesto’s most vulnerable.
“I feel like I have this calling to give back, like people did to me,” Samsin said. “When I was out on the street, people would bring me to their house or offer me a haircut. I got blessed so much that I feel like it’s my duty right now that I’m in a better position to kind of do the same.”
On any given day, Samsin can be found cutting hair downtown near the transit center and shelter on Ninth Street and in parks all around town. He unpacks his clippers and scissors kit and covers his clients in his signature drape emblazoned with his logo and his motto, “Faith. Forgiveness. Fruition.” Instead of a barber chair, he uses what is available: sometimes a bus bench, other times just steps on a stoop. As he cuts, he gives words of encouragement; many days, he just listens.
At just 33 years old, Samsin said he has lived a lifetime trying to find peace and a purpose. He was born in Modesto but left in his teen years to pursue creative projects in music and vlogging in the Bay Area.
In 2016, he completed training with Job Corps. which according to its website is “the nation’s largest free, residential career training and education program for low-income young adults ages 16 through 24.”
It was then that his mental state began to change, Samsin said. He describes moments of mania when he would build connections with others and thrust himself into creative projects, only to then experience severe depression and destroy the progress he had made.
“I would reach a certain plateau, and then it would just all crumble because of the mania and the recklessness of my behavior,” he said. “I burnt a lot of bridges, things just kind of got really bad.”
Samsin soon found himself living on the streets in Oakland. Even when he was at his lowest and had little to offer, he felt compelled to help his community, he said. He started a clothing and shoe drive and partnered with local clothing stores.
He was building momentum when he cratered back into the darkness of his mental health crisis.
Year after year, Samsin would repeat this pattern. Over the last 10 years or so, he describes being “5150’d” — referring to the California Law Code that allows for an involuntary psychiatric commitment for adults experiencing a mental health crisis — dozens of times all over the state and even Arizona. He was arrested a few times, too.
During one of his last episodes, he spent months living in the car, accepting food from a friend and her family. It was this friend who suggested he had bipolar disorder. Samsin previously believed these manic episodes were a “spiritual awakening.”
It’s been four years since Samsin felt compelled to manage his episodes and moved home to his family’s house in Modesto. Here, he was diagnosed and began medication.
“After getting on medication, there was trial and error to figure out what was tolerable for me to take,” he said. “I realized that maybe I do kind of need this so I don’t self-destruct and keep having to start over, over and over again.”
Starting over is what became the inspiration for his street charity, Bouncebacc Foundation. With support from friends and family, Samsin got his barbering license just over a year ago, and while looking for a place to work, began to go into parks and other areas with unhoused people to give them haircuts free of charge.
“The first step to bouncing back is a fresh cut,” he said. “When you get a fresh cut, you’re feeling good, you’re feeling confident, you want to network, you want to talk to people, you want to take initiative and move forward. It gives you that extra boost.”
He recalled all the free haircuts he received in the past and how looking good can translate into feeling good and, for him, doing good.
Sometimes he goes to the shelter and stays there for hours as people line up to get freshened up.
“I’m definitely glad it’s you, I wouldn’t let anyone else cut it,” said one of his clients, who goes by the name Luckie. As Samsin cut her hair, she described her struggles with being unhoused and keeping her hair the way she preferred it. She said that recent health issues had affected her mobility and had prevented her from cutting it herself.
When Samsin told Luckie that he plans to bring more people out to cut, she said, “I would still only go to you.”
His work isn’t limited to just Modesto, he often travels to Southern California and to his old haunts in the Bay Area. “I’m everywhere. And I hope that I can inspire other people. I have a team of other barbers that have reached out to me that I plan on incorporating them into it as well, that way we could do more haircuts at once.”
On the days he isn’t out in the community, Samsin can be found working at Cali’s Finest Barber Shop, at Standiford Avenue and Carver Road in Modesto. He posts his efforts on his Instagram account Bouncebaccsammy and sells merchandise to help fund his work.
“The homeless have just gotten a bad rap, and I just want to spread some positive light,” he said. “Some people just need a little bit of love and some some redirection into the right area, so they can make change. It makes me happy to make other people happy, it’s just a blessing.”
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM.
