"It was a really emotional experience". That was millionaire Lottery winner Geraldine Bradley speaking. But she wasn't talking about her £3.5m win, rather, she was thinking about her time cutting the hair of homeless people.
When you’re homeless it's understandable having a haircut might not be a priority, but a project that offers free hair cuts has been relaunched with the help of some National Lottery millionaires, including Geraldine.
She and Richard Davies, who won a total of £4.5million in separate wins, were delighted to offer their services to the Haircuts4Homeless service at Cardiff's Huggard Centre, a leading centre for people who are homeless and sleeping rough.
Read more: The teen making £4,000 a week selling sweets from a shed in his parents' garden
For Geraldine, who has been cutting hair since she was 16 and has her own hairdressing salon in Llanelli, it was a chance to combine her two loves of hairdressing and giving back to the community since winning the jackpot in 2006.
"When you sit in a hairdressers chair, there is a real connection between the hairdresser and the client. It is important to make that person feel special and then when they saw themselves in the mirror afterwards, they were speechless. Having a haircut is way down their list of priorities and most hadn't had one for months and months," said Geraldine.
"It was very emotional when they saw themselves afterwards. We know we haven’t solved anyone’s problem today, but we really hope that each recipient of our haircuts will know that we cared.”
Brecon hairdresser Richard Davies, who won £1million in 2018 and owns the Chop and Change in Talgarth, was also involved alongside Haircuts4Homeless founder, Stewart Roberts MBE.
Richard said: “If any hairdressers in Wales are thinking, is this for me, the answer we would give is absolutely yes! Our Huggard clients were able to enjoy that moment of calm that comes from having a haircut and the look on some of our guests' faces when they saw their new haircut, and the extra spring in their step as they walked away, will stay with me for a very long time.”
Haircuts4Homeless was established by Stewart Roberts MBE in 2014 and since then has opened more than 70 projects across the UK and Ireland, recruited 600 volunteers and given over 50,000 free haircuts. Stewart said: "It’s really important for us to make it clear that our service is back in Wales after a break caused by the pandemic. Coming to The Huggard Centre today has been a brilliant way to relaunch our service and we are looking forward to plenty more haircuts, and chairside chats, with clients in the coming months.”
Richard Edwards, Huggard chief executive, said they liked to offer a full range of services to the people that used the centre.
"So being able to offer haircuts very much fits into our aim to improve the wellbeing of people experiencing homelessness," he said. "At Huggard we work with many people that have experienced complex traumas in their lives and this has often led to experiences of homelessness and real difficulty in securing and maintaining accommodation.
"Confidence, and often self-respect, can hit rock bottom when you feel that nothing has gone right for you and suspect that nothing will in the future. A simple haircut can make a difference. It can make people feel better about themselves – not just in how they look after, but the fact that someone cared enough to give time to them."
Read next:
- Group of young Welsh lads win £1m in lotto syndicate
Man found a winning £55k lottery ticket while cleaning his car
Inside the Welsh town where hundreds of people won the lottery
Gareth Bale put on the spot as he gives Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney his answer
Best pictures as William and Kate abseil down Welsh hillside
Find out about food banks in your area:
