A homeless woman was seen in a 'bad way' on the streets by charity workers who fear her hair has been 'shaved off'.
Michelle Langan, who runs the Papercup Project homeless charity, said she was in conversation on Castle Street when she spotted the woman.
The 48-year-old said she has worked with the homeless woman before and spotted she was missing a substantial amount of her "lovely long hair".
She told the ECHO : "I was in town this week and spotted one of the ladies who we helped. I've not seen her for ages as we've all been inside with the pandemic.
"Her hair has been cut off, she had really lovely long hair. Her hair is really short now and she doesn't look in a good way."
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Michelle is concerned that she could be seeing history repeat itself as she saw Aimee Teese go through something similar before her death.
Aimee Teese collapsed and died after sleeping rough in a tent on the streets of Liverpool, at the age of just 30.
Michelle said before her death she had seen Aimee's hair had been cut off and she kept what had happened to her from charity workers.
The charity founder added: "It worries me because we have seen this happen before, the same thing happened to Aimee.
"She had long hair and then we saw her one day and her hair had been cut off, but she wouldn't tell us what had happened with her hair, she wouldn't say."
Michelle said she is hoping the woman she saw will reach out and she will be able to speak to her about what has happened.
She said: "It might well be the case that she won't talk about it. It's happened before where we knew that it was someone else had done it to her.
"It is worrying for us when we see this happening to women.
"There was another woman who had had her hair cut off while she was rough sleeping with a man who was her partner at the time.
"He had hacked off her hair when she was asleep."
Michelle said it is a "typical sign of abuse" when she sees women, who are sleeping on the street, with hair missing.
The 48-year-old said: "It concerns me because of the incidents we have seen in the past where this has happened.
"For women, their hair is a sign of their femininity with the women who are homeless a lot of them still keep their hair long.
"For that hair to be cut off is taking away from them. It's a form of control and abuse."
Michelle confirmed that the women had been accommodated during the pandemic, but warns it is very easy for people to slip back into homelessness.
She said: "Even when people are accommodated, especially women it's really easy for people to go back to old habits and friendship groups.
"It's not just about giving someone a house and a home, it's not the full solution to solving homelessness."
Anyone wishing to get involved in the Papercup Project as a volunteer can get in touch on Twitter or Facebook.
