PEORIA - Barbers at Headz Up Barber Shop already teach customers to show love to one another. They’re betting the same subtle nurturing technique will encourage grade-school customers to show love to books.

“If kids can come in here and read aloud, hopefully that will spark an interest,” says owner Sean Green. “A lot of us think we don’t like to read until we do it.”

Headz Up is one of six Peoria barber shops participating in “Barbers Love Books,” a community project with Hines School and Peoria Public Library.

Hines librarian Kris Coker-Schlink and Teri Miller, manager of outreach services for the public library, delivered crates of books to each barber shop Wednesday. The books, like the program, are geared to boys and girls in kindergarten to eighth grades. Children must read books aloud either while they wait or during their haircuts. In return, they receive discounts of $1 to $2, depending on the shop.

Peoria’s pilot project is a part of a books-to-barber shops trend that began in 2013 when Alvin Irby, then a New York public school teacher, was getting a haircut. One of his students, who needed more practice reading, was waiting for a haircut. Irby’s idea spread to barbershops and community groups throughout the country.

Local groups were planning Peoria Reads’ programs when they heard about Coker-Schlink’s plans to place books in barbershops primarily within Hines School’s boundaries. Green had heard about a similar program in Michigan when librarians approached him about the project.

“For our part, it ties in perfectly with Peoria Reads,” said Roberta Koscielski, associate director of Peoria Public Library. The culture of hair plays a role in the 2017 selection, “Silver Sparrow” by Tayari Jones, she said, while working with Hines and local barbers promotes the collaborative nature of Peoria Reads.

If the pilot project is successful, organizers would like to find funding to expand “Barbers Love Books” to barber shops and beauty salons throughout the city.

Barbers at Headz Up say the project adds another layer to a practice already enshrined in the shop.

“We call it showing love,” Green explained.

Customers must greet each barber, whether with a handshake, hug or fist bump. “What we’re trying to do is train young men not to be afraid of each other, to show love. With eight barbers, you get a workout here,” Green said.

The barbers also use a personal handshake to acknowledge and show respect for each other, added Courtney “Q” Wyatt, the barber who started the ‘show-love’ greetings.

Barbers say it’s contagious. Parents and new customers notice and want to do the same thing.

Headz Up is the typical barbershop, with sports blaring on the television and plenty of joking among the barbers.

“But we’re also trying to create an atmosphere of love,” said Wyatt’s brother and fellow barber, Ron “Snap” Wyatt. “If kids see all this love and we offer them a book, they connect it with love.”

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @padamspam.