Winning Stylists’ Hearts: Shaping Futures is Back

Schwarzkopf Professional Shaping Futures has announced their volunteer team for this year’s life changing trips to Mumbai and Delhi.

As Schwarzkopf Professional’s Shaping Futures enters its 7th year another team of five volunteers prepare to head to India to educate, enable and change the lives of disadvantaged young people.

Since 2010 when Schwarzkopf Professional launched this ground-breaking social initiative in the UK, it has touched the lives of over 40 big hearted British hairdressers. These salon owners and stylists leave their own businesses for between two and four weeks at a time to give what has amounted to over 800 days of time and expertise that really does shape futures!

Transforming the lives of these young adults, this year the volunteers are heading to Mumbai and Delhi on 21st September for a two-week intense training course, supporting and teaching young adults the hairdressing skills needed to get a job and earn a living. Twenty five students will be taught how to cut, colour and blow-dry hair. At the end of the course each student will be placed as an apprentice within a large salon in India to embark on a life-long career that literally shapes their future.

The team heading to Delhi are:

• Jane DeFrancesco, Jane Creative Hair, Solihull
• Lesley Mather
• Gemma Slade, Coloured Soul, Dundee
• Rhys Davidson, Coloured Soul, Dundee
• Lauren Tudor, En Route, Wakefield

Janet Maitland is Shaping Futures UK Ambassador, a role she has fulfilled for four years. Janet’s essential role coordinates, prepares and trains the UK volunteers so they are ready to rise immediately to the training needs as they arrive in India. Janet says,

The volunteer team this year are formidable! Their commitment and passion for Shaping Futures is admirable and I know they’re going to be fantastic mentors to these young, underprivileged students. It’s such an honour to be involved in this initiative and I’m so thrilled that we’ve been invited to Delhi and Mumbai to change the lives of such enthusiastic, wonderful young people.

Schwarzkopf Professional’s Natural Education Manager, Kay Brady says,

We are so inspired by Janet and the 2017 team, each year the volunteers blow us away with their gift to the Shaping Futures programme. Janet hosted intense training at her fabulous training environment at Janet Maitland Hair Excellence in Durham where the team were brought up to speed on the lesson plans, what’s expected of them whilst in India and the difficult challenges they may have to face as they work with these children who carry the trauma of their early years but whose smiles and enthusiasm gives back rewards to the volunteers that will last a life-time too.