A DARING mum is to part with her locks to challenge people's thoughts on mental health.

Clare McKechnie, an entrepreneur, is planning to shave off her flowing red hair in an attempt to show people image isn't everything when it comes to mental health.

Before she takes on the challenge the mum-of-two from Rutherglen will be sporting a series of unusual hairstyles before going the whole hog and shaving her head.

Having trained by anti-stigma charity See Me, the 38-year-old wanted to start raising awareness about mental health discrimination on her area, and decided changing her hair was the best way to make a statement.

Clare, who owns her own podiatry clinic, has depression and anxiety but it doesn't hold her back from life.

She said: " When the hair comes off I’ll look very different. But I’m still a scatter brained mum and wife who loves her family; a business woman trying hard to keep her employees in a job and provide the best service; a friend who likes a laugh; someone who likes to try new things; someone who loves food and music; someone with depression and anxiety who lives life to the full.

“I want everyone to see that you can’t know a person by looking at them.

“I want everybody to be able to talk about mental health. Good or bad. I want to challenge our attitudes towards a very common but stigmatised problem in today’s society.

“We can talk about broken bones and gall stones without feeling judged. But if we say we’re depressed, we’re labelled as miserable and lazy.

“I had to get over my own stigma before I was able to admit I had mental health issues. I’ve faced them and I talk about them so that I’m not so afraid of them.

“Now I’m coming to terms with the mind I have, I can see my mental health as a thing. Just a thing, it doesn’t define me.

“I’d like to see everyone with good or not so good mental health being able to talk about it freely, without fear of stigma and discrimination, and to not let it define them.”

Rebekah Moore, who runs the See Me community champion programme, said: “We all have mental health, but often when people are struggling you can’t see it, there is no particular way a person looks when they have a mental health problem.

“Mental health isn’t visible to the eye and we are proud of Clare in the very visible statement she is making to change the way people think.

“She will open up conversations on mental health, getting people in her community talking about this vital subject.”

Clare will get her head shaved on July 9 at the Rutherglen Exchange Shopping Centre, joined by three others undertaking the same challenge.

She will be raising money for the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH)

To donate to Clare’s just giving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ClareSeeMe.