Deadly Hair Dude’s mission to prevent crime by training students in hairdressing

Indigenous communities across Central Australia could have qualified hairdressers on hand in the future, with plans in place to offer training in remote schools.

Deadly Hair Dude Director Gary Strachan is a Darwin-based barber offering training to locals in remote Indigenous communities.

INDIGENOUS communities across Central Australia could have qualified hairdressers on hand, ready to trim, colour and clean Territorian’s hair in the future, with plans in place to offer training in remote schools.

Deadly Hair Dude is a not-for-profit organisation which offers training in barbering and hairdressing to Top End communities, and is looking to expand the services in the Barkly region and Central Australia.

Director Gary Strachan is a Darwin-based barber on a mission prevent youth crime by broadening regional employment prospects in training young Indigenous people in the art of all things hair.

He runs the Deadly Hair program which sees youth trained in Certificate II in Hairdressing, and travels in a van to offer the training in communities all over the Territory, which also provides a salon experience for community members wanting a haircut.

Deadly Hair Dude Director Gary Strachan is a Darwin-based barber offering training to locals in remote Indigenous communities.

In July, he visited Alice Springs and saw a gap in the market for training school aged kids in hairdressing and has since applied for the Federal Government’s Safer Communities Fund, which targets organisations with experience in providing early intervention activities to youth at high risk to prevent them from engaging in criminal activity or anti-social behaviour.

“We’ve put in for a grant to try and help prevent youths from entering the criminal justice system. We want to try and work with the schools, so that when the students finish year 12 they’ve got their Certificate II in hairdressing,” Mr Strachan said.

“I’d really like to try and do something in Alice Springs to help the youths and encourage them to engage, heighten their self respect, take pride in their appearance and grow self confidence.”

Deadly Hair Dude Director Gary Strachan is a Darwin-based barber offering training to locals in remote Indigenous communities.

If approved for federal funding, the VET program would be piloted for 12 months at nine school across Alice Springs, Willowra Tennant Creek, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Tiwi Islands, Wadeye and Gunbalanya.

Mr Strachan hopes the program, once successful, could roll out to other schools in the future.

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