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Tyler Rice, 28, was surprised when he got a response from a Honolulu Little League parent who offered him a chance to cut the team’s hair the day before the national championship.
He was even more surprised when they gifted him tickets to see them win the Little League World Series.
When he moved from Honolulu to Lebanon County at the age of 4, Rice rediscovered the idea of Native Pride from a young age. That was partly why he volunteered to help the Hawaii team that had been carving out a path to glory all summer.
It was while attending Cedar Crest High School that Rice first started cutting hair, doing it for his friends when they needed it. He said that it came to him at the right time and that the time has come for the best. Eventually he was cutting hair for people around the school to earn a little money.
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After graduation, he briefly considered attending college and then joined a counseling service before enrolling at the American Academy of Cosmetology in Lancaster, where he obtained his hairdressing license.
He worked in local shops for years as a lifestyle barbershop manager before the pandemic cost him a steady income. During that time, he cuts hair at home because he needs to pay the bills, and people still need a barber.
“Being a hairdresser is not just about the service I provide, it’s also about the experience,” Rice said. “Talking to people as a therapist, you know what I mean? Talking about people’s everyday things, some of their struggles, the good things that happen and the bad things that happen.”
Since the outbreak, Rice has been working at Salon Element on Hawk Street in Lebanon, where he rents his own space, works his own hours, keeps his own clientele and is always taking on new clients.
“He lived,” said Jared Murray, 32, manager of Hemi Barber Shop on Walnut Street in Lebanon. “Some of the guys who cut hair don’t exist. Tyler really is a class act with great clients. He created a community around himself by cutting hair.”
Nearly a decade later, Murray took Rice under his wing when he began cutting hair professionally.
“I’m like a big brother to him,” he said.
The idea to offer his services to a Little League team first came to Rice while watching them play during the Little League World Series on TV.
“I realized that these children have been on the road for a month, they are far from home, and I can see their hair from their hats,” he said. “I’m right, they’re wolves. How cool would it be if I could[cut their hair]?”
His girlfriend pushed him to meet the team’s coach on social media but there was no response from him.
He then noticed one of the player’s mothers talking about her daughter frequently on ESPN and decided to contact her.
“Believe it or not, there’s a couple of kids here who want to get a haircut, but they don’t know if the barbers here know how to cut their hair.” He said: “It was like, I’d love to come up. I didn’t even put a price on it. I wanted to do it because it felt like something I had to do.
Rice and his mother arranged for him to come to the team hotel in Williamsport for a haircut on Friday, Aug. 26, a day before Hawaii’s U.S. championship game against Tennessee.
Murray said she asked Rice to come with him to Williamsport to help, but the announcement was too late during the busiest time of the year, and he couldn’t.
While going was a good experience for him, Murray said he knew it was something very different for Rice.
Roos cut hair for several players, some of their siblings, all three coaches and even some parents.
“I’m in this room with little kids running around, there’s other kids, there’s parents, and I’m a complete stranger you know. But they took me in like family.”
The team gave Rice all sorts of gifts, things he could only get from Hawaii, team-branded apparel, and surprisingly, four tickets to the game against Tennessee.
The next day, Rice drove with his family to see the Hawaii Little League team beat Tennessee 5-1 for the Southeast championship.
After the game, the coaches asked an even more surprised Rice to return the next day with his family to watch Honolulu face Curacao in the World Series.
The team went 13-3 to become the 2022 Little League World Champion.
“I saw how hard-working they were, and them being from Honolulu and me being from Honolulu, we made a connection that I felt,” he said. “I know Pa is far away, and they’re very different from what I’m used to. To give you that sense of comfort, even though you’re far away from home, there are still people like this here, with the same culture and the same way of life as you.
Rice has said he would never do this, and his coaches say they won’t be retiring anytime soon.
