Before she became a Daughter of Charity, Sr. Oanh Tran trained in cosmetology as a practical backup plan after emigrating from Vietnam in 1989. A vivid dream, a chapel statue of St. Vincent de Paul, and what she describes as a moment of trembling clarity redirected that plan into a vocation. Today she brings both callings — cosmetology and nursing — to the styling chairs at the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center, where she cuts hair, treats scalp conditions, tends to wounds, and listens to the stories of people navigating addiction, mental illness, and homelessness.

Global Sisters Report’s Rhina Guidos spent time with Tran to capture what that ministry looks like day to day: the before-and-after photos she keeps on her phone, the regulars who watch out for her in return, and the quiet conviction that keeps her going even when a client disappears for a few months.

Homelessness doesn’t look the same for any two people who sit in Tran’s chair, and one story she recounted to GSR makes that plain. It’s why the ministry matters: at the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center, someone is there to listen.

“I’ve been in jail. I slept at the beach. It was too cold. I tore off the fabric from a beach umbrella and used it as a blanket to keep myself warm. I didn’t know there was a camera. I’m not wrong. I just protected myself from death.”
— a guest at the Center, recalled by Sr. Oanh Tran to Global Sisters Report

“When I cut their hair, I think that I touch Jesus so I feel I am closer to him more. At the same time the person who receives the haircut, they feel God is touching them. … They feel that God is there and gives them hope and comfort.”
— Sr. Oanh Tran, to Global Sisters Report

Read the full story, “With haircuts and health care, Catholic nun ministers to Santa Barbara’s poor,” by Rhina Guidos, on Global Sisters Report.

This ministry is part of the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center, which welcomes Santa Barbara neighbors in need every weekday.