Ross Wilson

One day in Vancouver, where he used to live, Ross Wilson happened to be walking down the street with his barbering tools when a man asked if Wilson had any money.

"I said, 'I don't, I really don't, but I can give you a haircut.'"

The man told him he couldn't pay, and Wilson said that was fine. So he gave the man a haircut, passed him a mirror, and the man started to cry.

Wilson thought the man didn't like the cut, and asked why he was upset.

"He says, 'Because I haven't seen this person in a long time.'"

And that's how it began.

On Sundays, Wilson provided free cuts to people who couldn't afford it, people who hadn't had a proper haircut in years.

He convinced some other barbers to do the same, to set aside an hour of time on Sundays for free cuts.

"We have all these hours in the day to do something better for the world, but we neglect to understand that you can do it without any money. I gave a haircut for free. That was it," Wilson says.

When he came to Ottawa in the late summer of 2018, Wilson, 34, got in touch with community centres and hospices and the Ottawa Mission, offering some free shaves and haircuts.

"And it just took off from there."

A short while later, Wilson met Jay Regnier, and together they're founding the Human Barber School, a four-week program on the basics of barbering that can help people get a job as a barber.

"The bottom line is, if you're willing and wanting to get a second chance to be able to provide for your family, we will provide you with free education," Wilson says.

Eventually, they hope to head to the North to set up shops and schools.

"What we would do is open up a school, open up a barbershop, and give them the keys. And then they take it from there, and then we move on to another location," he says.

"You go to a barbershop, you go to a salon and get a haircut, you feel so good about yourself.... You now have the opportunity of saying, 'OK, I can get better. I feel good, therefore I can.' You can't get any more powerful than that.... It's the greatest gift in the world."

Trailblazers is a community connection project that shares the stories of people making a positive impact in the Ottawa area.