The power a haircut has to change lives

Never underestimate the power of a haircut.

It may sound trivial, but the humble haircut can change lives and make a huge difference to people in all walks of life.

There are amazing people across Oxfordshire who are doing this one hairstyle at a time, from making sure autistic people are comfortable when having their locks chopped, to helping people who have experienced hair loss.

BBC Radio Oxford has been finding out how and why they help.

Gillian Swift, who is 90 and from Letcombe Regis, believes just because someone is getting older, it doesn't mean they should have a boring haircut and fade into the background.

"Nowadays people are living longer and we have quite a good time," she explains.

"I'm going to a curry evening tonight, and it makes you feel like joining in if you have a nice haircut."

Gillian has been getting her hair done by Andrew at Idlewild Hairdressing in Abingdon for more than 30 years.

Andrew says older people "still want to go out, turn heads, and look elegant," and that stylish hair can make them feel braver to "go into the world and maybe go to a concert, the theatre, or just out for supper".

"I think somehow if your hair's a mess the rest of you feels a mess, so when it's looking nice I feel much better in myself," Gillian says.

She thanks Andrew "for helping to keep me look reasonably smart", and adds: "I do get compliments. They want to know where I have it done. I smile - it makes me feel happy."

For some autistic people getting a haircut can be really traumatic and 12-year-old Mae from Cowley avoided getting hers cut for years.

She recalls: "You've got the noise of the driers and the clippers, there's music on, babies that cry, someone touches your hair, they spray water, the cape's itchy, there's loose hair when they cut it, and because the senses are heightened sometimes it actually hurts."

Instead Mae chose to grow her hair long, and it grew past her knees.

"It was upsetting for a while because her hair would get really knotty," mum Steph remembers.

"It was really difficult to manage and she would get upset because I would try and brush it."

A solution was found when a neighbour took on the task, coming round to Mae's house to see to her hair.

"It's somewhere I know and she's got family members who are autistic as well, so she gets it a lot more than other people," Mae says.

"She doesn't mind me getting up and picking breaks, and she'll explain to me what she's doing rather than just doing it."

When Mae looks at old photographs of herself she still thinks her hair looks "nice", but she admits "it's a lot better" now.

Oxford resident Shaista Aziz believes there are many misconceptions when it comes to Muslim women who wear hijabs.

"One of my favourites is 'do you wear that in the shower'?" she says.

"Of course I don't wear it in the shower. Quite a few of it is 'bantz'. You can banter with people but if you've heard it 20 times in a day it gets a bit boring."

Shaista says most mainstream salons have hijab-wearing clients, and she usually just calls ahead to talk through her preferences.

She explains: "They can put a screen around me if needs be. Oftentimes they'll offer a room to go into, and by the way these adjustments are available for lots of reasons, not just for Muslim women.

"I think that's really beautiful and that's what inclusivity should be about."

She says such adjustments were not as common in her mother's day.

"Now it's really an everyday thing to see a woman in a hijab going into a salon and wanting to get her hair or a treatment done."

She adds: "It's very normal for everyone to want to be pampered. It's been going on for hundreds of years."

Wigmaker Andrew Hall, from Abingdon, previously worked for Vidal Sassoon's, but when he moved to Oxfordshire he found himself in demand for wig consultations, "be it for chemotherapy journeys, alopecia, or any other stress-related hair loss".

Andrew even made wigs for his own mother-in-law during her battles with cancer.

"Believe me there's nothing more frightening than cutting your mother-in-law's wig," he says.

"The last one was called 'Fred', and she would keep it at the bottom of the stairs on the banister, so she could have it there ready to answer the door."

Wendy, who has been using Andrew's service for a year, says it was the "first step on the road" of accepting her cancer diagnosis.

"He talked me through everything and when I left here I felt totally uplifted again," she says.

"I thought there's someone there who's totally going to support me... the medical people are going to push me through it, but he was the one psychologically who could pick up the rag and bone that was left of me at that moment, and say 'you're going to make it through this'."

Andrew becomes tearful as Wendy - who has now had the all clear after her treatment - tells him she will be "eternally thankful" for helping her feel "normal" again.

"You don't know who the special people who you never had in your life are, before they suddenly become the special people in your life," she says.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, the BBC Action Line has information and support.

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