SCRANTON, Pa. — This is how Beatrice Martinez donated to Scranton’s Women's Resource Center; by getting a haircut here at the Career Technical Center of Lackawanna County.
“I normally pay double or triple the price of what I paid today. It kinda made me feel good to know that I was part of this for the very first time, so I would definitely do this again,” she said.
For over 30 years, professional stylists have been volunteering their time and talent for Santa's Snippers.
“Three decades ago where there was a woman who was high up in a cosmetology corporation. And she was a formally battered woman. And she recognized that before there were formal services, that women would talk to their stylists about the violence in their lives,” said Peg Ruddy, Women's Resource Center Director.
15 stylists spent their day cutting hair for the charitable cause, knowing firsthand how the styling chair can be a safe space for clients.
“There's actually been a couple states that have passed laws that cosmetologists now have to get trained in domestic violence,” mentioned hair stylist Colleen Pattineto.
“They get to know survivors in a pretty, you know, intimate way. So then they're able to refer them to us, which makes the survivor trusts us better,” added Ruddy.
Some chose to gift a haircut to participants at the Women's Resource Center.
“Sometimes this could be their only haircut that they have all year long and just being able to make themselves look good and feel good about themselves and just have a nice conversation with somebody,” Pattineto explained.
All proceeds are donated to the Women's Resource Center toward their work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in the greater Scranton community.
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