Lockdown hair-roes: Hairdressers create bespoke wigs for women battling cancer and deliver online maintenance sessions thanks to National Lottery COVID-19 grant

A group of hairdressers are using their extraordinary talent and a new National Lottery grant to create bespoke wigs for women in Manchester dealing with hair loss as a result of their cancer treatment.

Community Cutz C.I.C is a hair salon based in Droylsden, Manchester, who through its project, Better Days, provide bespoke wigs and pamper workshops for women going through hair loss either due to their cancer treatment or another scalp or hair ailment.

Now, thanks to funding of more than £25,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, Better Days is moving its much-needed services online so people can still access them in lockdown. The group is offering virtual wig fitting and maintenance consultations, an online peer support group, as well as sending out wigs and aftercare packages to local women.

The brainchild of hairdressing duo, Wayne and Laura Coyle, the charity also offers affordable hairdressing services and training opportunities for people in the local community.

Operating for more than 2 and a half years, the idea for the project came about as a result of Laura’s own personal experience which motivated her to help women in her community.

Laura Coyle, Co-founder of Community Cutz CIC and project lead for Better Days, said: “As somebody who has experienced this first hand with my own mum, I know how important the services we offer are to each individual. That is why we ensure everything we do at Better Days is tailored to each person, to give everybody the service they deserve.”

Better Days also offer one-to-one and group workshops where they teach women everything from scalp and skin care, to practical advice on maintaining their wigs. Another key aspect of the online sessions is the social interaction, enabling women to talk each other which helps to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness. With the online sessions carried out through Zoom many of the workshops run anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes ensuring that all questions are answered. In fact, it was the desperate need of the clients to continue getting advice during the pandemic that inspired the group to go online with their services.

Laura Coyle said: “Due to the influx of cancer patients contacting Better Days to see if we could help them with the services we would normally offer - we seemed to be more inundated with enquiries than ever before - the general consensus was that people were feeling forgotten about and in despair. We could only assist people with general information in this difficult time, but we knew with the help and support from the National lottery and a restructure of how the service operates during restrictions of COVID- 19 we would be able to offer our services again in a new and safe way for all those shielding.”

Gillian Halliwell, Head of Funding for the North West at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “The National Lottery is playing a critical role in supporting people, organisations and communities during these challenging times. Projects such as Better Days are making an amazing contribution to the community-level response. We’re incredibly grateful for their dedication and the hard work of thousands of community-based organisations across the UK – we’re humbled by their efforts and delighted that our funding is able to help.”

In total, 20 charities and community groups across Greater Manchester have been awarded more than £750,000 of National Lottery funding since the beginning of June – providing crucial support to overcome challenges caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes. Last year we awarded over half a billion pounds (£588.2 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, and supported over 14,000 projects to turn their great ideas into reality and make a difference in their communities.Across all of the National Lottery distributors, £600 million has been made available to support communities throughout the UK during the coronavirus outbreak. Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for the UK’s good causes, and £41 billion has been distributed to 565,000 good causes across the UK since 1994.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk