Elderly Hong Kong hairdresser brings happiness to those in need, one free haircut at a time
Long-time volunteer fondly recalls serving dying hospital patients
Tam Kuen-fai has been cutting hair since 1955. He started by taking a job for HK$15 a month at a hairdresser’s in Ap Lei Chau. Twice a week, he would go there to learn on the job. After a few years, he left and opened his own shop.
In 1993, Tam was visiting his wife at Haven of Hope Hospital. She had had a stroke.
He noticed that “people who lived in hospital for months on end had all these knots in their hair”. That’s when he decided it was time for him to do what he did best. “I’ve always wanted to help people, even though I don’t like it when people help me,” he said.
The next day, he packed his box of hairdressing tools and started giving free haircuts to hospital patients. “They were so happy after I cut their hair. I just kept doing it. At one point, I was cutting 60 people’s hair a day.”
“I even cut the hair of people in palliative care,” he recalled. “They’d say: ‘Thank you for helping me. I will leave this world happier because of your haircut.’”