Waynes Story

Over the years I have been lucky enough to see Andrea help so many people and have a positive and life changing impact on their lives. Over my career that spanned nearly 30 years I spent the last 15 of those years as an instructor working with disaffected young people that displayed extreme Violence, Self-Harm, had been subjected to various forms abuse, were at risk of suicide or taken from dangerous situations. Like so many other professions the Mental and Physical demand from working in that environment is extremely high and at times exhausting.

Learning to communicate and actively engage with people that were in crisis situations to help bring about a safe outcome was a skill developed over many years and one that I came to realise I would need to be the individual opening up. I wanted to make a positive change to the lives of the individuals whom I worked with but due to a great many factors there is very little thanks for the time and effort that it takes to bring about these changes. When the positive changes came about, they were extremely positive but when the negative changes came, they were extremely negative and at times life changing! Whilst protecting these individuals who have a range of extremely complex needs, I was part of a small Physical restraint response team involved in a serious incident. I had previously suffered an injury that became increasingly more serious and unbeknown to me at that point ended what was at that point my career.

Over the years that I have been married to Andrea, I have seen the business grow from the very start and the amount of people needing help increase year on year, but I have previously never been able to be an active part of the business. We consciously chose to turn the unplanned events into positive actions which would positively impact on both the business and me as an individual. I received 8 months of physiotherapy to treat the injury, successfully retrained as a barber and  spent hour after hour supporting and helping Andrea to learn about the Men’s Hair systems.

From this we expanded the business to add what is Now the dedicated Men’s part of Andreas Hairoom which is called Unit 6 Barber. I have been lucky enough to meet and help some truly inspiring people whilst working with Men who for several reasons are suffering or have suffered Hair loss. Men suffer Hair loss as well as women but as Men we tend not to talk about problems for one reason or another, but the aim is to allow people to feel comfortable in a safe and private environment.

After so many years of working in a job that received so little thanks, to have been surrounded by lots of negativity and trying to help uncooperative individuals the change to where I am now has been life changing. One of the very first things that struck me was the gratitude and kindness that people showed to me along with three simple words that stopped me in my tracks

“Thank you, Wayne.”

Everybody’s story is unique and private to them and sometimes it is easier to talk to someone different, after having spent many years developing my communication skills and training people to use theirs I have also developed a good ear for listening.