LANCASHIRE LOOKING TRIM THANKS TO PROCTER

LANCASHIRE LOOKING TRIM THANKS TO PROCTER Lancashire players can claim to be the best groomed on the county circuit this season thanks to the barbering skills of their team mate Luke Procter. The all-rounder spent part of the winter training as a barber at Ruger Barber in Saddleworth working under the supervision of tutor Alan Beak. Having passed his NVQ Level One on basic cutting skills, Procter is now working on is Level Two, which will include styling and he has spent the early weeks of the season practising on his county team-mates as well as Lancashire’s new director of cricket Ashley Giles. Procter sets up a makeshift salon in the toilet area of the home dressing room at Old Trafford and offers a free service to his team mates. ” I’ve done most of the lads so far and I also cut Ashley’s hair. That was a bit nerve-wracking to be honest, cutting the hair of your boss, but he seemed to like it. He said it was the best haircut he has ever had,” Procter said. ” I just put a chair in the toilet area of the dressing room and get it done. I don’t charge them. I’m still learning but you learn from practising.” Procter need not have been nervous about cutting Giles’s hair because the former England one day coach was delighted with his George Clooney look. ” Luke was a little bit nervous but he’s very good. He’s got a good hairdresser’s chat and he did a very good job on me. He used the clippers on the side and the back and then the scissors on the top and a comb-over for a George Clooney look, which is what I asked for,” Giles said. ” He has done most of the lads and it’s great to see Luke practising the skills that he developed during the winter. He takes it very seriously and it’s great to see him doing that.” Procter has also spent time working in the Ruger Barber salon when he has had time off from cricket and hopes to be cutting hair professionally when his cricket career ends. ” It’s something that I have always been interested in and I have a friend who is a barber so I have always taken an interest,” he said. ” The long term idea is to try to get my own shop and go straight into that when I’ve stopped playing cricket.” Procter has received valuable advice about his likely future career from Matthew Wood, the former Yorkshire and Glamorgan batsman, who now works as one of the PCA’s team of Personal Development and Welfare Managers. ” Woody has been really helpful. He pretty much sorted everything out for me and he has given me some excellent career advice,” Procter said. Giles also believes Personal Development is important, not just for Procter, but for all of Lancashire’s players. ” Personal Development is really important and it is something that I will probably look to do more of in my second winter here,” he said. ” You can’t just keep hammering away in the nets. I am very open to guys going away and learning some new skills and doing personal development. ” I was fortunate when I finished playing that I went straight into coaching and I did some television work. But when you are playing international cricket it is difficult to find the time to do personal development. ” But it is important for the guys to learn other things and other skills. If they can learn a trade it gives something for them to fall back on but in the winter it is also good to get away from cricket for a while.” {{ak_sharing}}