When James Canody cut his fellow inmates’ hair in prison, it felt like factory work.
“There's not really much to talk about, and you don't have a whole lot of time to get to know what people are doing,” he told me recently.
I was sitting in his barber chair at R&R Head Labs, where Canody has made a new career since getting out of prison, on Colfax Avenue in Denver.
All that barbering Canody did behind bars made him the perfect candidate for this mission-driven shop, which opened early in 2024. That mission: gainful employment for people who were recently incarcerated, in hopes of reducing recidivism. R&R also hires returning veterans.
