Deadly Hair Dude: Chuffed.org raises more than $39k for Darwin icon

A tidal wave of financial support has flowed for Deadly Hair Dude, with the fundraising target expected to be well and truly exceeded.

REMOTE communities have put their support, and money, behind a Darwin hairdresser who is training Aboriginal people to cut, colour and style hair.

The initiative, founded by Gary Strachan, began with a training centre in the city 18 months ago and expanded into a mobile hair salon taken out into rural communities.

“The expansion into providing remote training has placed financial pressure on the Darwin training facility that Gary had anticipated gaining Government support for,” friend of the salon Keith Gregory said.

When the application for funding was rejected, Mr Gregory started a chuffed.org fundraiser to allow Mr Strachan could keep his salon open.

The target was set at $48,000 to cover 12 months of rent.

“On Wednesday morning we had about $600 and then I put it on a couple remote communities’ Facebook sites and it went off,” Mr Gregory said.

“That's the great thing about social media, when people want to get behind something they will share it,” he said.

Deadly Hair Dude Owner Gary Strachan and business partner Ashley Brown. Picture: Keri Megelus

More than 1500 people have donated so far.

Currently, the fundraiser has less than $10,000 to meet the target, a feat Mr Gregory thinks will be met in the next 24 hours.

“What this fundraiser has done is allowed Aboriginal people in community to speak through their pockets,” he said.

Mr Gregory said if anything the support something like this has garnered sends a clear message to those in charge.

”There’s a message for the Government in this — you should be supporting it.

”We shouldn’t have to ask people who have no money to keep this open,” he said.

The next steps for the business once the rent target was met would be to expand the program and reach even further.

“If we pass that target, the next thing we’ll look at doing is converting a sea container into a salon in either Katherine or Tennant Creek and get another salon going,” Mr Gregory said.