A career in the hair industry can be exhausting. Six-day workweeks, making sacrifices in your personal life, and doing it all with a smile on your face. So, it’s especially commendable when hair professionals still find the time to give back. This Sunday, November 11, is Veteran’s Day, and we want to call out some of the great things going on in the community.
Veteran Barbers for Veterans is a mobile barber shop that provides free grooming services to veterans, service members and first responders across the US. Additionally, it provides vocational training to veterans who want to become barbers. Veteran and cancer survivor Lloyd Blair founded the organization with help from instructors, the employees of Veterans United Home Loans, who provided a $10,000 donation, and he also uses his disability check from the VA for additional funding. You can expect to see more from this organization on the next season of the Netflix’s Queer Eye.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has earned support from Sport Clips, and on Veteran’s Day, the salon chain will donate $1 from every haircut to their Help A Hero campaign. The VFW’s Sport Clips Help A Hero Scholarship also helps provide financial assistance to service members and veterans who are working to advance their education. The veterans pictured in the lead image of this article are all recipients of this scholarship, which will distribute $1.5 million dollars to veterans across the U.S. this year.
As the holidays quickly approach, it’s important to think ahead about how to can give back in other ways as well. Mark Bustos’ #BeAwesomeToSomebody movement gives haircuts to the homeless, and he’s garnered international attention for it. From individual efforts to initiatives supported by major corporations, there are endless ways to give back and make a worldwide impact. Do you know an amazing human, salon or corporation that is giving back in a special way this season? Let us know by sending us a direct message on Instagram.