2018 Shaping Futures Volunteers Reunite

Hairdressers from across the UK reunited earlier this month at Janet Maitland Hair Excellence in Durham to celebrate and reminisce about their time as Shaping Futures’ volunteers.

The stylists spent the summer teaching disadvantaged young people in the Philippines and Vietnam how to cut and colour hair, as part of Schwarzkopf Professional’s charitable initiative. The Shaping Futures trips, which took place throughout August and September, saw UK hairdressers travel to SOS Children’s’ Villages in the Philippines (Lipa) and Vietnam. While there they taught 40 young people hairdressing techniques, enabling them to develop skills and confidence to build a life away from poverty for themselves and their families.

During the reunion the volunteers and UK Ambassadors celebrated having raised over £21,000 for the cause - the highest amount ever raised by a team for Shaping Futures.

If it wasn’t for SOS Children’s Village and Shaping Futures, our family’s future might not have any direction at all. Perhaps we would still be having the ‘bahala na (come what may) mentality’ without aspiring more for the future of our children and without valuing the essence of planning. We may still remain clueless on how to improve our economic status through livelihood which can help us support the needs of our family. - Merly, a Shaping Futures participant in the Philippines

Commenting on the reunion, Janet Maitland said,

We have had the most fantastic year for Shaping Futures. Not only did we manage to send two groups of hairdressers to help disadvantaged young people secure a future for themselves away from poverty and hardship, but we also raised a staggering £21,173 through fundraising activities and donations, to ensure the future success of this initiative.

Next year we’ll be celebrating 10 years of Shaping Futures and in that time we’ll have helped close to 300 individuals. Since September, our students in the Philippines have all gone on to work for a local salon group, David’s Salons. This is just tremendous and a credit to the strength of the initiative and Schwarzkopf Professional, the passion of the young people involved and the brilliant teaching of our UK volunteers. I am so proud.

The 2018 volunteers

• Janet Maitland - UK Ambassador for Shaping Futures and owner of ‘Janet Maitland Hair Excellence’ in Durham
• Annabelle Taylor works as a stylist for ‘Edward & Co.’ based in Brighouse near Leeds
• Lauren Scott is a Salon Director for ‘Austen Thomson Hair’ located in Edinburgh
• Raj Sethi Bamra has recently joined ‘Indy Hairdressing’ in Leicester as a Director
• Indy Burmi is co-owner of ‘Mewies and Indy’ in Quorn, Leicestershire
• Barbara Deakin manages ‘Top Cut Hairdressing’ with six salons located across the North and the Midlands
• Sarah Franklin owns ‘The Hair Shops’ located in Aberdeen. This is her second time volunteering for Shaping Futures
• Jacqui Lowes runs her own salons in St Helens and Billinge, Merseyside, ‘J Lowes Hair & Beauty’
• Lesley Maher runs a salon in Dublin

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