‘I’ve never looked back,’ says Northampton barber and recovered drug addict who turned his life around after leaving prison

A Northampton barber, who turned his life around after recovering from his drug addiction and leaving prison, said he has “never looked back since”.

Lee Coombes, 47, from St James, was released from prison in 2011, has been clean for 10 years, and now runs a successful barber business from the shed in his back garden.

Con Hair Barber was set up three years after Lee moved to Northampton from Birmingham in 2015, to start afresh with his son.

The barber said: “Everything I do, I do for my son and his future.

“Getting to this point has been hard work and I often think back to times when I didn’t know if there was going to be a way out – after seeing what my friends had been through.

“It took three or four years of saying I was ready to turn my life around for me to actually do it, but I haven’t looked back since.”

Lee says he cannot pinpoint what he is most proud of, but to have a family, house, successful business and never having been in debt are his biggest achievements.

Completing a barber course in prison in 2009 allowed him to kickstart his career in Birmingham and when he moved to Northampton, he spent the first three years working in Barber Joe’s.

Alongside his business now, he also works in Smith’s Barber, a salon in Duston.

The hard work he has put into building his clientele and improving his skills has resulted in becoming an ambassador and gaining sponsorships, which means Lee receives the latest scissors, clippers and hair products for free.

“I have non-stop customers,” he said.

Lee hopes to branch out into teaching, as he wants to help others.

His long-term aim is to go into prisons to do talks and demonstrations, and an opportunity has recently arisen for him to become a mentor to homeless people – which, if he gets, he would like to incorporate barbering.

With an Instagram following of more than 4,500, Lee has become well-known in the industry and was “overwhelmed” when he was recognised at a recent barber show.