A man who says he was bullied as a child for being the "only gay kid" has spoken of the moment he turned his life around becoming a hairdresser.
Aaron Jones said he was a "rebel and get into trouble all the time with the police" before a "lightbulb moment" that turned him into an award-winning hairdresser.
Merseysider Aaron, 31, said it was when he was confronted with a juvenile probation centre that he became interested in being a hairdresser.
He said: "When I was a teen I was the only gay kid where I was from. I was constantly bullied for that.
"It led me to rebel and get in trouble all the time with police. Eventually, I was sent off to a probation centre and there I met a woman and she pushed me into hairdressing and then shoved me into a hairdressing college.
"It was a lightbulb moment. I realised there was more to life than just going out and being a nightmare."
After setting up a salon in 2017, Aaron went on to 'Best Hairdresser' at the National Beauty Awards. His five-star salon comes highly rated.
Of the award, Aaron, from New Brighton told the Liverpool Echo: "I've been to a few awards ceremonies with other people and if you're sat by the door it's probably a bad sign. I was basically sat on the door out at this one.
"I was just listening along to what was being said and missed my name being read out and I was just clapping as they said my name not realising it was me who won."
The road there was not an easy one. Aaron was 17 when he began doing an apprenticeship in hairdressing, but this went south when he lost a job at one of the salons he was working at.
He added: "I just didn't turn up to work one morning. That was the start of me bouncing from salon to salon really."
Eventually, he found a place he was comfortable with after becoming close with the manager. He later went on to be the manager at the same salon before leaving to take charge of a nightclub.
He added: "I found a place and became close with the manager. I later became a manager there.
"One day it became too much and I wanted to give it all up and I decided to leave. I went to manage a nightclub for a year, but always kept a finger in the pie.
"But eventually I missed the face to face interactions as you can barely hear people in a nightclub.
"All the salons I've worked in I've never really found my spot or my place. It reached a point where I just thought lets go and do it myself.
"With savings I had and some help from family I managed to set up a salon, in just nine days from having the idea as well, after I met a woman who wanted to give up her lease for a shop