Ken Hung is used to providing his upmarket hair styling services to well-to-do clients.
And his long list of accomplishments in Vancouver, Los Angeles and London, England speak to his rise in the hair fashion industry.
But on one day earlier this month he shared that talent with Richmond’s homeless.
For Hung, it was like coming full circle.
It was at the Homeless Connect event at St. Alban’s Drop-in Centre which provides a variety of services — from clothing and medical care to personal hygiene to hair cuts.
“I came to Canada from China with my parents in 1996,” said Hung. “We didn’t have much, pretty much next to nothing, and getting used to a new country, a new culture, finding a job and learning a new language was very hard.
“It wasn’t quite like being homeless, but it was a lot to deal with, especially since while we were getting used to a new country my parents were in the process of getting divorced. And I was only about 15 or 16-years-old at the time.”
Hung, who worked six years for Suki’s Advanced Academy in Vancouver, said he has made donations to numerous other charitable causes such as cancer fundraisers, but the opportunity to help someone who does not have a roof over their head put a real face on what he was doing.
“Being homeless is different,” Hung said.
“One of my clients asked me if I knew of someone who could lend their time to Homeless Connect and I thought about it and realized, why couldn’t that be me,” he said. “And when I went to help out, I tried to learn as much as I could about the people I met.”
He heard stories about unfortunate accidents that kept people from working, families that had been split apart, and illnesses which affected people’s lives to the point where they lost everything, including their homes.
“The stories were very sad to hear,” he said, adding that made his job of giving them a new hair cut all the more satisfying.
“It was great to see the transformation,” Hung said.
“It made me feel really good about being able to use my talents to make a person’s life just that little bit better.”
