The Novotel Wollongong Northbeach general manager had agreed to lead the charge in a new campaign to raise awareness for Wollongong's Light and Hope Clubhouse, a centre for people with mental illness.

He's the first of several Illawarra personalities to agree to colour or highlight their locks as part of the Highlights for Hope campaign.

As he waited to undergo his transformation, Mr Immoos revealed how he and his family had been affected by mental illness.

"I have always been touched by the mental health cause because of my brother [Thomas] who went through a difficult time in his life and attempted suicide," Mr Immoos says.

"Luckily he was rescued in time. But this is something that needs to be brought a little more out into the open."

Mr Immoos also shared his own personal journey with depression when he was younger.

"When I was just over 17 I lost my father [also Walter]," he says.

"We were together on the same motorbike and got hit. He bled to death and I barely survived.

"For me when I went through that period I struggled for about seven years to find my way back.

"It was other people who helped me back on track. When something like that happens you ask yourself 'why me' and 'why did I survive and not him?'. All those questions are a natural thing.

"I was born blond and was most of my life so I thought it made sense to go back to that colour for such an important cause. I used to have curly hair. I haven't been blond in 20 years."

Mr Immoos said he wanted to do what he could to turn the spotlight onto mental health and raise funds to help keep Wollongong's Light and Hope Clubhouse operating at least two days a week.

And using his hair to highlight the cause had definitely worked. Since Monday he has found the whole subject much easier to talk about.

He doesn't mind putting up with a few blond jokes and now also feels he is entitled to a few blond moments.

The first thing he says when people ask him why he has gone blond is "let me enlighten you".

Even some people who knew him well and said hello to him every day did not recognise him.

The best feedback is when people tell him he looks 10 years younger.

But most importantly, going blond has been a great icebreaker that allowed him to share his story.

Others who have already agreed to having novel hair extensions are Oscar Forman and Tyson Demos, of the Wollongong Hawks, and Nieves Murray, of IRT, who is going to get the corporate colours put in her hair.

Among the first ambassadors was 2013 Miss Sydney Australia Aleisha Brooke-Smith who says she has been wanting to do more charity work in the Wollongong community since winning the title last April and saw the Light and Hope Clubhouse as a fantastic cause.

Illawarra's Miss World Australia national finalist Jesy Pinkerton is also involved.

By telling their stories, Mr Immoos knows the ambassadors will be able to encourage others to do the same or sponsor their new look by making a donation for the Light and Hope Clubhouse.

"When people do ask why I have gone blond . . . I am telling them it is about a charitable cause and raising awareness," Mr Immoos says.

"When I told my wife [Sylvia] I was going blond without explaining why, she asked me if I was having a mid-life crisis.

At home on Monday night, he says, her first reaction was silence. Then she said she would have to get used to it.

"After two hours she phoned Switzerland put me on Skype and said 'look what they did to Walter'," he says.

"I think the biggest response I have had is from staff. They think it looks cool. They think it is a little outside my normal behaviour so that is when I tell them what it is about."

Highlights for Hope is the brainchild of former world champion hairdresser Robyn David te Velde who turned Mr Immoos blond with Colours at Northbeach owner Tomma Giorgio.

Mrs Giorgio did not hesitate to get involved.

"When I heard about Highlights for Hope it was something close to my heart. Someone in our family passed away four years ago with a depression issue and I think when it happens in your family it makes you more aware that it is still a taboo type of sickness that people don't want to talk about openly," she says.

"There are so many people I know who are suffering from some form of mental illness. So if I can give something back, why not."

Twenty Illawarra salons have agreed to take part in the campaign.

Mrs David te Velde and fellow Light and Hope committee member Janine Cullen were amazed at the speedy response.

The campaign culminates during October's Mental Health Month, and is directly linked with the hairdressing industry - hairdressers are some of the best counsellors in the community.

And Light and Hope chairman Professor Frank Deane said that was a well-established fact. "There has been research done on hairdressers and their informal caring role," he says.

"They spend about 50 per cent of their time talking to clients. The main problems discussed are children followed by physical health, marriage, depression and then anxiety.

"They have this natural informal caring support role.

"They fit perfectly in to what we are trying to do and make it easier for people to talk about mental health."

Mrs Giorgio says nearly 40 years of hairdressing has taught her much about how to be a good listener to people.

"I have always said we are the unpaid psychologists," she says.

"Dealing with people like we do they start to talk to you about so many personal things. Even when we don't know them they want to tell us their story and we are good listeners."

Mrs Giorgio says people trust their hairdresser and a visit to a salon helps them to feel good about themselves.

"It always is confidential," she said.

"I would not have been in this profession this long if I had a big mouth. A lot of my customers have said 'you are someone who never speaks about anybody else'. I always say 'it is not professional and I don't do that'."

A study of 268 beauticians and hairdressers in Panama identified the beauty industry's unique role in society.

"After assessing their knowledge and attitudes towards depression it concluded that they could play an important role in reducing the treatment gap," Prof Deane says.

"Specifically hairdressers could play an important role in reducing stigma associated with mental illness, and be a potential source of information to support people to access professional help if needed.

"There is a great synergy between the informal roles of hairdressers and the Light and Hope Clubhouse initiative that promotes interpersonal support among its members to support their mental health recovery.

"The hair salons participating in the Highlights for Hope fund-raising have found another way to provide support for people in their communities. I imagine hairdressers and their customers have been aware of this mutual interpersonal support since people started getting their hair styled and did not really need research to tell them this. But the research highlights that hairdressers have always had an informal role in providing emotional support and problem solving strategies."

Ms Cullen says the committee knew earlier this year that to keep the clubhouse running it had to come up with a fund-raising campaign that would have immediate effect.

"We are almost at a stage where we are going to have to shut the doors on the clubhouse," she says.

"If we do that many of the people who go there will have no reason to get out of bed any more. There are also many people who don't know about Light and Hope. So once we lift this awareness we are expecting more people to come and benefit from the clubhouse. And under the NDIS people actually have a choice of where to go. And we want people to think of the clubhouse as an alternative. That will in itself generate funding."

The committee eventually hopes to get Federal Government funding to add to money previously raised to build a clubhouse (more than $320,000) but that money was raised for a building and cannot be used for operational costs.

Money raised during Highlights for Hope will help keep a temporary facility running in the Lutheran Church Hall in Stewart Street.

Prof Deane says the committee can only afford to operate the clubhouse a couple of days a week, but it has already achieved much.

"It started out operating one day a week for a year-and-a-half after the initial campaign," he says.

"It has been going about six months now for two days a week. That mostly operates on the interest from donations originally given for the building and also some funds from Gujarat.

"But we have struggled a bit to keep enough funding going to keep operating two days a week. This initiative is about trying to get that going.

"On any one day about 15 people attend the clubhouse. They shop for themselves, they prepare a meal together. Really the funding is to maintain minimal staff. But they do need some support. So that is where funding is needed to actually hire people."

Prof Deane says about 20 per cent of people with schizophrenia went on to have long-term chronic problems.

"The idea is that they can have a life," he says.

"The hope is if this clubhouse gets legs there may be an opportunity to expand it. But what the project presently needs is some ongoing funding to sustain it two days a week.

"What we are aiming for is five days a week which is how most clubhouses operate. But if we can get two regularly and create a structure that is a work order day that is part of the philosophy.

"It means they can get up in the morning and have a reason to turn up and start working in the clubhouse. We have had a number of success stories where people have gone on to university to start degrees and gone on to work really because of the support of the group which has helped them along."

Mrs David te Velde says Highlights for Hope allows business leaders, sports stars and local identities who don't feel comfortable talking about mental health to still send a message loud and clear by highlighting their hair.

"By aligning with the hairdressing industry we have a stage that is visual and light, bubbly, exciting and colourful that will help tell the story for people," she says.

"I know so many people who have been affected by this problem.

"The problem I see is not only does the clubhouse need funds but I have found there is no awareness and nobody knows about Light and Hope. When we were looking for ideas and I thought about Light and Hope, there was a lightbulb moment that lit up on the hairdressing side of things.

"I thought there would be no better industry that could shed a light on to a dark corner that is not so freely and readily supported in conversation or with fund-raising. That is because it is a difficult thing to talk about. There is still a stigma but I thought hairdressers could do the job.

"I saw the industry as being a perfect partner. It has been putting highlights in peoples' hair forever and lighting up their life with the nearest thing to psychology that you can get."

Mrs David te Velde and salon owners are now calling for more people to have crazy things done to their hair and Mr Immoos is planning to beam a large lighthouse-shaped light, the symbol of Light and Hope, on to the wall of the Novotel.

He is also going to host the official campaign launch on Monday.

It is not the first time Mr Immoos has hosted events for Light and Hope.

During the building campaign he made the Novotel available for a charity lunch.

"For us being a big part of the community we can help, so we will," he said.

"This time we are going to have a lighthouse (the symbol of Light and Hope) projected on the building on October 9 and 10 which you will able to see as you drive down Mt Ousley."

The dawning of Wollongong Light and Hope

2002: Wollongong Lord Mayor Councillor Alex Darling calls together a group of leading citizens with the aim of increasing awareness of mental health issues in the Illawarra region.

2003: This group, called the Lord Mayor’s Schizophrenia Awareness Project Committee, raises $230,000 to buy the best beta imaging technology for ongoing schizophrenia research at the University of Wollongong.

2004: The steering committee, now known as the Lord Mayor’s Light and Hope Appeal Committee, turns its sights towards bigger things – a purpose-built mental health ‘‘clubhouse’’ based on successful facilities used in Europe and the United States for rehabilitation.

The committee raises more than $350,000 towards the Clubhouse project, as well as ongoing donations by Gujarat NRE and promises in kind by hundreds of Illawarra companies.

Wollongong Council provides a 99-year lease of 3000square metres of land for The Clubhouse at Unanderra, and the building is designed. 

2007-2008: The Global Financial Crisis hits,  stalling The Clubhouse Light and Hope Project.

2009-2013: A temporary Clubhouse starts operations and now operates Tuesdays and Thursdays in the St John’s Lutheran Church Hall at 15 Burelli Street, Wollongong.