10 MINUTES WITH JAKE PUTAN

By Louise May

Jake Putan was born and grew up in Taree (Biripi Country). At the time his mum was working closely with animals and his dad was in the military. With both parents having grown up mostly in the country, early life for him felt pretty grounded.

His first introduction to hair came at home when his dad, who wasn’t trained but was handy across many sets of tools, used to cut his hair. Inspired by a couple of footy players and their beloved Bulldogs, they even started getting into small zigzags. Later on, Jake began cutting his own hair after visiting a local salon. With barbering and social media being incredibly discreet back then, he didn’t know anyone else cutting hair professionally except for two friends, and they would exchange “home jobs.”

After school, Jake missed out on the marks to get into uni, so his mum sent him out handing out resumes. Forty-plus applications later he got one response – a hairdressing salon offering an apprenticeship. Having already built a level of experience and a small clientele, it was a good deal for both sides and marked the start of his career.

Editor of Mocha Hair, Louise May, recently spent 10 minutes with Jake to hear more about his journey, his work today, and how wellness has become an integral part of his career.

What do you do in the industry today?

Currently, once a fortnight I provide mobile cuts in Sydney which gives me 13 days off in between. Along with occasional trips for community haircuts with a friend’s business out in regional areas. I’m using the time between to assess, study, design and deliver innovative programs including wellness sessions in hair salons, or men’s wellness programs in existing barbershops for their teams and clients (I want to highlight these are quite collaborative of nature, working in partnership with respected peers/mentors I have relationships within and outside of the industry)

What do you love most about the industry?

The responsibility - To recognise our greater role as hair people and our spaces as the central pillar for community. I believe we can find a greater sense of purpose when we begin to know ourselves and how we can use this role more effectively.

Who inspires you?

This is a big question to answer and needs a lot of context - I will do my best to give it justice here, but I’ve found that when I’ve looked up to someone else’s work, I often found myself feeling compelled to copy them, and as a result losing my own authenticity and becoming lost. This is almost guaranteed to happen when we rely on following trends - we depend on the trend provider and lose the wisdom of our own experience.

When relying on individuals for inspiration in the past I also found that it created a sense of idolisation, and with that came the subconscious desire to find reasons to doubt them and resent them. This is due to an experience of separateness which is often the byproduct of competitive natured work. So, I believe we can enquire a little further as to where we establish our own compass for inspiration - Values inspire me; things that are done with heart and integrity, a focus on promoting connection, authenticity, harmonising with nature and our innate biology.

How do you keep inspired outside of work?

If I notice myself lost for inspiration, it’s usually coincided with over stimulation, excessive screen time, addictive behaviours, numbing and avoidance - this is all rooted in an internal experience of disconnection. So, I ask myself what do I need to feel connected again? Generally, this comes through slowing down, having time in nature, around the fire, resetting my sleep routine, hydrating, discipline with eating, training, spending, and making time to be presentinspiration follows. I use my own experience as inspiration to tell my story, not something I think people will like - the latter can be quite a detrimental source.

What role does breath-work and mindfulness play in your life?

To be quite frank most of our lives are spent in an agreed sense of illusion that we will not recognise until after having some kind of breakthrough moment that cracks us free from the spell. Breath-work has been one tool that helped me see clearly, observing the patterns of my mind that kept me following a dangling carrot while I disregarded my heart and those closest to me. I work to train myself to be as present as possible to be available for my future family, and to be considerate of the byproducts of my actions. Both breath-work and mindfulness have allowed a better opportunity to do just that - Along with a deeper sense of acceptance of who I am. I’m not perfect and still have work to do. And I think that’s the best part.

Can you tell us about your journey with breath-work and mindfulness etc and how you started?

In 2018 I was working full-time, away on weekends doing education, coming back home to a relationship I wasn’t present in, and absolutely wasn’t creating time for myself to even consider how I wanted to show up in all these events. It catalysed through substance abuse where I blacked out and was arrested.

This experience taught me a lot and made me reflect on why I was trying to escape. I walked away from all of it, took 7 weeks off, started meditating and listening to Wim Hoff (a renowned figure for bringing breath work mainstream), before attending a retreat in 2019 where I first experienced a ‘breakthrough moment’ in a deep breath-work journey that completely shifted my career path, walking away entirely from what I thought to be the pinnacle of my journey that far (brand educator, stage presentations, film work, and so on).

Is this something you teach others? Can you talk us through this and what that looks like?

Yeah - I’ve been holding private sessions for individuals at their private request in the comfort of their own homes to gain tailored clarity and direction for their own situation as well as group experiences for teams in their workplace... and I mean, use this moment now - take a slow inhale through the nose for 4 seconds, exhale slowly through the nose for 6 seconds - repeat 2-3 times and tell me how you feel? That’s just 20 seconds, now imagine after 30-40 minutes guided.

What’s next for you?

I’m now running wellness workshops for groups of men, as well as discussing with hairdressers how to introduce and integrate wellness practices into their salons/barbershops, not just for themselves but to also increase the service quality and capacity for their clients. My dream is to build a men’s wellness centre - a legacy for my grandfather I may share about in time. In the meantime, I’m connecting with those who have networks of men (barbershops are a great start) to host sessions for their teams and communities, it’s generally a 2-3 hour session and caters 4-8 people

FEW FAST FAVES...

The perfect Sunday. Describe it? Most days feel like Sunday - but a restful morning, waking up in nature with a view, phone on airplane mode, prep a fire, make a coffee, journal or a good book, bush walk and a dip in a creek or waterfall. Sunset, music, a glass of red, hot bath and sleep.

Favourite Spotify playlist? What vibe is it? I’ve made a few (“jakeputan soundscape”) - very dependent on the mood/moment - lately life has been quite noisy and so I’m valuing a lot of silence.

Favourite drink? Agua de la vida

Favourite Meal/food? Outside simple mince and eggs lately I’ve been hitting a nice comfort meal throughout winter - warm oats, peanut butter, cinnamon and rock salt.

Favourite place to visit? I’ve travelled quite a bit, all have their unique things I have loved, most of these places are desirable for escaping, but nothing will ever compare to being right here in this moment.

@whoisjakeputan