Hair gypsy travels world for charity

I met a young lady who had run away the day before her arranged marriage. She had already started cutting her hair and she wanted me to do the rest.

Cutting the hair of a runaway Bangladeshi bride is just one of the many odd experiences Christchurch ‘‘hair gypsy’’ Jerome Wiersma has had on his journeys around the world.

The 29-year-old has just returned home after a round-the-world trip to raise money for a Habitat for Humanity project, which is building 21 new homes in Bromley, Wainoni and Linwood.

Wiersma raised $10,000 by charging over 365 people for haircuts in every town and city he visited.

‘‘I met a young lady who had run away the day before her arranged marriage.

‘‘She had already started cutting her hair and she wanted me to do the rest.’’

He met the girl in Nepal and had to leave her there. Just a few weeks later the 7.8 magnitude earthquake shattered the country. ‘‘It was bittersweet to have travelled around the world raising awareness for the Christchurch earthquake and then for that to happen, it was like being here all over again.’’

Habitat for Humanity board director Jennie Whalley agreed Wiersma’s way of fundraising was slightly crazy but ‘‘if anyone could do it, he could’’.

She said many low socioeconomic families had been hit hard after the earthquake and the $10,000 Wiersma had raised would go towards extra building materials.

Habitat for Humanity expects the first families to move into the 11 Bromley homes in August and for all the families to be in their new homes by the end of October. Wiersma met some of the families last night and is off to Hamilton in two weeks to learn the art of a ‘‘cut-throat’’ shave.

‘‘I haven’t been able to put my scissors down since I got home, I take them with me everywhere.’’

Habitat for Humanity homes are built by volunteers who donate their time and money.