A BARBER from Wellesbourne is set to lop off volunteer’s locks for charity.
Yvonne Busby, who has been a barber in the village for 40 years, is celebrating her landmark anniversary by inviting ten customers to have their long hair cut short in aid of the Head and Neck Clinic at the University of Coventry. This is where her late husband Bill died earlier this year from throat cancer.
Yvonne, who has a one-woman barber shop in Wellesbourne, hopes to raise £4,500 to buy a skin fibrometer.
A skin fibrometer accurately measures early tissue changes and stiffness in a patient’s skin, helping in the diagnosis of skin fibrosis and lymphedema.
Yvonne is asking ten volunteers, adding herself to the list, to have their hair cut short from long to help purchase the vital piece of equipment.
Yvonne started her barber shop journey into men’s hairdressing by accident after landing her first job in a ladies’ salon in Coventry.
But the day before she started she was told they were short of a hairdresser in the men’s salon and was asked to start there instead. She stayed there for a number of years.
Eventually she looked to branch out with own business and was offered a chair in the barber’s shop in Wellesbourne.
She added: “I’ve been there ever since. Some of my customers from 1982 are still coming to me. I’ve seen many boys growing into men and they bring their own boys in now.
“I have had three or four generations in the shop at one time. I’ve seen mum and dad married, four children born, potty trained and talking and seen them grow up. I feel like part of the family.”
Yvonne’s Big Haircut will take place on November 22 at her salon in Kineton Road between 4pm and 8pm.
She said: “I’m fortunate to have some very loyal customers.
“They have been so supportive and patient over the last two and a half years. They understood that I had to close some days when Bill had hospital appointments. I’ve already got my first volunteers.”
Donations can be made via sponsor forms available in the salon or by donating directly at www.justgiving.com/campaign/billbusby
