Volunteer Week: Stylist Cuts Hair from the Heart

When Michelle Wall arrived in Marin in 2013, she had a dilemma. After years of cutting hair both professionally and for friends or relatives, she knew no one.

“I though, whose hair am I going to cut now?” she says. Her question led her to Homeward Bound of Marin, where her ongoing generosity with time and talent give a boost to dozens of residents every month.

She’s just one of the amazing volunteers that we celebrate this week – National Volunteer Week – who lend a hand in our programs. Like Michelle, many keep regular hours that make them a special part of our team.

“We have wonderful conversations,” Michelle says of her Homeward Bound clients. She visits three programs – Mill Street and New Beginnings Center shelters along with Warner Creek Senior Housing – a total of five visits monthly.

“A lot of people are looking for jobs or they’re going to an interview,” she says. “I’m busy every time I go.”

Michelle realizes her visits aren’t just about cutting hair.

"For the older men, especially, I think it's special just that someone is touching them. Unless they have a partner, they have no physical contact. It's just that feeling of someone caring for them," she says.

Trained to style hair in Canada, Michelle worked in salons for years in her home of Montserrat, an island in the Caribbean. Arthritis in her hands forced her to stop, so she studied computing in college after she and her husband moved to the United States.

Because she never updated her licensing in the United States, Michelle says, she has to decline services for people who'd like her to continue cutting their hair after they leave Homeward Bound. She wishes local salons might donate services occasionally to fill that gap.

"I have people who would like to stay my clients, but I can't actually help them as a paying customer," Michelle says.

For now, this wonderful Novato volunteer continues styling hair for people without resources to pay.