WATCH: Australian barber provides free haircuts to homeless people (WARNING: contains graphic language) 

A clean start begins with a clean cut.

Am Australian barbershop owner, who is recovering from an addiction to cocaine, believes he can help homeless people overcome their issues with a fresh look.


"The Streets Barber" Nasir Sobhani was featured in an online video from PLGRMAGE that shows his "Clean Cut Clean Start" mission as he skateboards through town to offer free haircuts to people who live on the streets.

The Melbourne resident's compassion for his "street clients" comes from his own battle from cocaine addiction, which he is very candid about in the interview.

"Cocaine is the best thing that ever happened to me," he said. "It sped up my recovery."

Sobhani was spending up to $400 a day on cocaine at school and had to go to rehab. His family suggested he cut hair for a living because it's what he did as a kid.

"I love it so much, it's like my new way of getting high man. It's like my new drug," he tells a customer while giving him a haircut on a sidewalk.

He said he used drugs to mask his hatred of himself, and now on his one off day a week he looks to provide some style and guidance to people on the street.

"What I'm doing on the streets now is my way of giving back. It's my way of repaying my gratitude for being sober and healthy again," he said. "I remember the days I used to hate myself and not even look into the mirror without crying because I would just be so disgusted with who I was. And I find that, like embedded within a lot of my street clients. They feel so ashamed of who they are."

In the video Sobhani talks to his clients about what is troubling them. He also leads a weekly group for people to engage with their spirituality.

Sobhani's entire body is covered in tattoos except for a spot on his right hand where he plans to make a mark for every year he stays clean. On his stomach is a tattoo of two hands locked behind prison bars, which he got while in rehab.

"The greatest prison is the prison of self," he said quoting from Baha'i scripture. "I just basically got it as if I'm in prison on myself on my belly. It's kind of funny, I take off my shirt and people just think I'm an ex-con. But there's more to it than that."