Volunteering in Antigua, Guatemala
What is Hair Aid?
Hair Aid Inc, is an Australian based not for profit organization that sends teams of volunteer hairdressers to slum and street communities around the world to teach those in critical circumstances hair cutting skills. Hair Aid works with the poorest community members, those rescued from sex trafficking, drugs and mafia hands, and we teach them hair cutting skills so they can earn money (without fear) to feed, clothe and house themselves and their family.
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My Latest Project Oct 2025 - Daily Photo Blog
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 1!
Landed late late Thursday evening!
Spent Friday touring locations, getting final trainee numbers and planning classroom setups. Confirming translators, transportation and tours!
Excited for what’s to come!
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 2!
Toured one more location in the morning then started welcoming the volunteers in!! Geri, Loretta and I did some fantastic restaurant research with a daytime food tour (you know I love a good food tour when travelling!!)
Some of the group got stuck in insane traffic because of a marathon happening in town, but eventually everyone arrived! (14 total volunteers!) We went for tacos and are excited and ready for the week!
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 3!
We started with a walking tour of Antigua! The entire town is a UNESCO world heritage site and so beautiful!
In the afternoon we had a basic Spanish lesson, which was extra special because it was taught by my teacher, Yesnia who I’ve been taking private zoom classes with for the last couple of months.
Then we got into the official Hair Aid induction, which is an in depth briefing where we go over how the training works, safety, rules and site operations.
After that we took out allllll the suitcases of donated supplies, organized the combs, clips, scissors and created the kits our trainees will learn with. Organized chaos!!
Finished off the day with a delicious meal!
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 4 - First day of training!
We have four locations around Antigua, partnering with local not for profits to host the trainings.
As project lead I spent the day visiting all locations to confirm training numbers and coordinate with the community liaison at each site, jumping in and helping as needed
I spent the morning at Funcoli, about 25 minutes away up in the mountains. The community has no running water, and most of the trainees walk 20-40 minutes to get to the school for the haircut training. At one point the power went out, so we were holding our cellphones for light, and most of the mothers were learning to cut with their babies strapped on their back. Now that’s dedication!
In the afternoon I checked on the other 3 sites. Our international volunteers are amazing so everything was running absolutely smoothly.
Today we taught how to drape, hold the scissors and combs, how to section the hair and how to do a straight one length haircut.
By the end of the day everyone had done at least one (some 2!) haircuts on live models! Something at home would take (at least) 3 weeks of hair school training, and our trainees rocked it in 7 hours, most who spoke no english! Thankfully each locations has a translator, and we know un poco Español from our class Sunday!
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 5!
Haircuts and cooking classes!!
Our students are picking it up very quickly, it’s wild to think they learned how to hold a pair of scissors yesterday and are doing full haircuts today!
I had haircut #1 today, the fantastic stylist Rae demoed a layered haircut on me!
In the evening we did a fantastic cooking class! We made 6 different dishes including the traditional chicken pepian (delicious) and even made tortillas from scratch!!
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 6!
Wednesday!! Middle of the week already
I got two haircuts today! The “bob” is not a super popular haircut (everyone wants the “butterfly” haircut or lots of layers/shags) so two locations used me as examples of over direction so the students could visually see and understand the concepts.
In the evening my 2IC (second in command) wing woman Geri and I went out for a lovely dinner together. We went to Nanik, which was featured on this season of Somebody Feed Phil and it was absolutely delicious!
Geri and I have done 3 back to back projects (Guatemala, Cambodia and this one) in less then a year together and gotta say we are a dream team, couldn’t have asked for a better partner to lead this team!
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 7!
Clear skys!! Antigua is surrounded by 4 volcanoes and they made an appearance - Fuego even gave use a smoke show!! (I love volcanoes)
Thursday is men’s cut/ short cut day! We teach scissor over comb - no clippers, as they are expensive and require electricity. We only train with what our students will get in their kits.
In the evening it was graduation prep day! We brought back all the suitcases with the tools and re organized and distributed into graduation kits for our trainees!
Hair Aid commits that each trainee who completes the program gets a “business in a bag” - 4 clips, a comb and a pair of scissors. Sometimes if we are lucky with donations they also get a cape and water bottle.
This project was overflowing with love and support from our volunteers and those who supported and donated to them. Each trainee was able to get two capes and water bottles, extra clips and combs, as well as some personal hygiene gifts as well.
We wrote out and signed graduation certificates, and then had a pizza party!
Hair Aid Guatemala Day 8 - Graduation!!!
Graduation day is the best. It’s the celebration of all of the effort our trainees have done all week to learn 5 haircuts in 5 days!
As project lead I was honoured to present each trainee at all 4 locations with an official Hair Aid certificate, a physical commemoration of their outstanding accomplishment.
Nothing can match the feeling of how proud I am of how hard everyone - trainees - Hair Aid volunteers - translators - location staff - have worked to bring this whole project together.
To be able to teach someone in 5 days a skill that will change their lives - literally provide them a path out of poverty and opportunity to earn an income to support themselves. It’s a feeling I can’t put into words. I am so grateful to have the ability to participate in this amazing organization.
Hair Aid October 2025 Guatemala - Finished!
My 5th (but not last!) Hair Aid project is complete!
I’m exhausted, both mentally and physically, and SO grateful to have been giving the opportunity to lead this amazing team. Big shout out to Geri for being my second in command. The best wing woman I could ever ask for
Our international volunteers came from around the world - this time from Australia, U.S.A, and of course Canada. I can’t thank them enough for their hard work, amazing positive attitudes and dedication to make this project such a huge success
Together we taught the basic skills of haircutting in Antigua at 4 fantastic locations in partnership with local charities.
If you are a hairdresser reading this, know that YES you should definitely volunteer on a project. It’s hard to explain how phenomenal an experience is, all I can say is DO IT!
Hair Aid operates projects many times a year in Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Guatemala. If you have any questions, check out hairaid.org.au or email me!
Podcasts Talking about Hair Aid