We think of a shave or a haircut as part of our everyday routine, something superficial or even vain. But for the homeless, grooming is an unthinkable luxury.

We wanted to show how Philips trimmers and shavers aren’t just giving people haircuts—they are giving people a boost of confidence. So we partnered with celebrity stylist Mark Bustos, armed him with Philips grooming tools, and documented his story.

We went out on the street, offered free haircuts to the homeless, and captured their transformation. This story spread online, from one stylist to another. And one country to another.

Mark Bustos is a celebrity stylist in New York City. On his days off, he goes out in the streets and offers free haircuts to the homeless. Philips partnered with Mark, armed him with grooming tools, and documented his story with a shareable film that was posted on the Philips Facebook page. This one-day stunt resulted in a film with 11 million views, and 381,000 shares. It helped start a media frenzy and inspired other stylists around the world to do the same—giving out free haircuts to the homeless, and giving them a boost of confidence.

The paid campaign featuring the original video ran on Facebook from May 18th through June 24th, 2015.

During that time, it reached 6.1 million users, and generated 3.5 million views, 114,000 shares, 4,800 comments and 83,000 likes, far exceeding ambitious benchmarks and expectations.

The video remains live on Facebook and Youtube, and has to date generated more than 11.5 million views.