Chris Bashford didn't always expect to be trimming fringes and foiling hair, but the ex-serviceman said re-training as a barber was one of the best decisions he ever made.
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The Ulladulla local, who worked at Batemans Bay's Bayside Barber Shop, grew up wanting to follow the well-trodden path of most males in his family by serving his country.
At age 19, as early as he could, he enrolled in the Royal Navy.
However a training accident saw Chris break his back; he was medically discharged within 12 months of enrolling.
His childhood dream was in tatters.
"It was a very testing time for me," he said.
"When all you've ever wanted to do is that job, and you're doing it, and then to have it taken away from you through no fault of your own - it was tough."
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Jobless, and with his first child due in two weeks, Chris was desperate for employment and an income.
As he considered what he wanted to pursue, he narrowed his criteria down to three things:
"I wanted a job in an industry that was continually evolving, had room for growth and where I could finish a job and stand back and see what I'd completed," he said.
Then a chance appointment changed the direction of a life.
Chris visited Bayside Barber Shop in Batemans Bay for a trim.
"I was watching the barber dance around the chair and it was a thing of poetry - you could see the passion," he said.
"By the end of the haircut he offered me a job."
Chris started three days later.
"Being a barber had never once crossed my mind before that day," he said.
Now he loves the creativity of being a barber.
"There is so much more to barbering than cutting hair," he said.
"I love the artistry involved."
He enrolled in a TAFE NSW Moruya Certificate III in Barbering - what he described as "a phenomenal experience" - and plans to one day open his own barber.
"It is an industry that is seriously evolving and modernising itself - it's an exciting prospect," he said.
