Mary Pugsley MBE is the driving force behind both Hair at the Academy, a salon in Exeter, and Hair in the Community, a non-profit organisation dedicated to changing the lives of the most vulnerable members of her community through hairdressing, barbering, and beauty services.
These organisations work together to give some of the most disadvantaged people in Exeter and the surrounding parts of Devon the chance to get a job that will transform their lives. They are increasingly working with homeless people in the community as well, getting them shelter and a chance to work at the salon.
We visited the academy and spoke to both the new recruits and the staff that keep the place running – as well as those who find new people to come in and be trained – and they told us the amazing story of Hair at the Academy/Hair in the Community.
“I started studying with Hair at the Academy as part of an adult cohort,” said Rhi, who now works as the Community Barbering Lead. She’s on the frontline of helping to find new kids from disadvantage to train at the salon. “I decided to retrain with a different skill. I’d been in the beauty industry for ten years on makeup counters, department store based, and I just thought I’d like to do something else. Do something that was still within the beauty sector, but something that I could have more charge over and finesse my skills. And I found Hair at the Academy, which was great. It fit in really well with my home life, being a single parent.”
Eventually, Mary asked Rhi to do her present role, being active in the community in terms of discovering fresh faces. She works with a charity called St Petrock’s, who offer shelter amongst other services to homeless people, out the back of Exeter Cathedral.
“One day, I was told we had a chance to work with St Petrock’s,” Rhi continued. “That we’d been offered a room to work with there. We had this plan to take on students there from the homeless community. I was just like, oh my God, yes! We took on two students about this time last year – Abi and Anna – they’re sisters from the homeless community. They’re housed by St Petrock’s in some flats that St Petrock’s owns. And we’ve got this lovely little room. It’s kind of nestled up in the rafters of this old, converted church. That’s where we train them.”
Rhi is clearly someone who loves what she does for a living.
“I’ve absolutely loved it. It’s felt like you were really giving something back to a community that you don’t have that much to do with unless you volunteer. The homeless community is completely separated from the rest of the population and part of it is us pushing it away – also, it’s a little bit of them hiding away for a multitude of reasons.”
Kat is the administrator at the salon, keeping everything ticking by day to day. She took us on a tour around the salon, amidst the trainees working. “We teach all our students on an individual basis. So, it always looks really busy in here! All of our students have their own time.”
“But everyone’s on different levels, aren’t they? Different skill levels,” piped in one of the trainees, working on a false head of hair. “So, I started in September. And I’ve only got like three or four months left of training to do.”
“All of our students have an individual learning plan,” said Kat, to a lot of nodding heads from the students. “They all have an individual timetable. Our students are free to take breaks whenever they need, as long as they don’t take the mick with it, so that they can have sensory breaks when they need, like if it’s getting too hot or if you’re getting stressed and they just need five minutes to refocus and put themselves back down again.”
One of the other trainees came in with a comment at this point.
“It’s a big family feel here, isn’t it? It’s not like it’s teacher and students, more like friendship and like family. And like family, we don’t always necessarily get on. Everyone has their little moments, but it’s all fixable, everything’s workable – and everyone wants to be here for a reason.”
The family feel in the salon is unmistakable, and clearly part of the formula which makes Hair at the Academy and its non-profit cousin work. As always during our research, it was inspiring to see young people who had been left behind, given no chance to have a decent life, being given just such a chance.