Short Back & Sidewalks partners with leading Australian hair care brand evo to reach mammoth goal

Photo: Jacqueline van Grootel

The lives of 7000 people experiencing homelessness have been positively impacted through receiving a free haircut from Short Back & Sidewalks (SBSW) as of Monday August 29.

“When you’re cold, hungry, scared, and don’t know where you’ll be sleeping, your appearance isn’t a high priority,” said founder and CEO Craig Hollywood.

“But positive connection and enhanced appearance are integral to your self-confidence, mental health and well-being.

“It could be the confidence boost someone needs to apply for accommodation or for a job.”

Hairdressers and barbers are the accidental counsellors of society and it’s the meaningful connections through conversations that help the volunteers at SBSW make a difference to some of the most marginalised community members in Australia.

“One of the common things we hear from our haircutting community is that they would love to volunteer their time, but aren’t sure where to start,” said evo’s head of brand Nina Junin.

As they move towards a goal of 15,000 free haircuts per year across Australia by 2025, SBSW is partnering with global hair care brand evo through connection with salons and hair cutters, plus ensuring all services are equipped with evo products and tools. 

“What started as a few folk heading into car parks in Northbridge on weekends has now grown national and we're extremely proud to be positively impacting the life of our 7000th client,”  said Craig.

“Partnering with an awesome, like minded organisation such as evo will give Short Back & Sidewalks the opportunity to scale our impact, and help more people in need as we move towards our target of 15,000 free haircuts a year by 2025.”

The 7000th haircut was delivered during service at Passages Youth Engagement Hub in Perth, and was attended by The Hon Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Federal Member for Perth.

On any given night, over 116,000 people in Australia are experiencing homelessness. Homelessness is not "rooflessness". Only seven per cent of people without a home are sleeping rough. The majority of homelessness is hidden - people in crisis accommodation, rooming houses, insecure housing, overcrowded dwellings or couchsurfing.