Being a teenager is certainly not easy, especially with all those social stressors they have to deal with… like their skin being perfect, or their clothes, or their hair. Many teens find themselves dealing with depression because of it. And, as most of us already know, depression is a very bad place to be.
One day, a 16-year-old girl walked into a hair salon in Waterloo, Iowa, and stylist Kayley Olsson could see she was in for a challenge. Kayley, who, at age 20, was not too far removed from those teenage years herself, would be relying on the help of one of her colleagues for this special young woman, who we’ll call her Becky.
Now, Becky had for weeks been experiencing some severe depression over her summer vacation from school. It was so bad that she just stayed in bed practically the whole time, only getting up to use the bathroom. But Becky knew she was going to be heading back to school soon and those class photos would be taken, so she found that little ounce of motivation to pull herself out of bed and go to the hair salon.
She had stayed in bed for so long that her hair was, indeed, a mess. And that’s putting it lightly. She hadn’t washed or brushed it in weeks and it was terribly matted. So Becky, feeling that the damage to her locks were irreversible, told Kayley to just lop off all her hair. That’s when Kayley called in someone else to help with the youngster.
Says Kayley: “Cutting her hair was absolutely not an option for me. I knew right then and there that we had to keep as much hair as possible.”
And so, with her fellow stylist Mariah Wegner, the two spent many, many hours over the next two days carefully combing out young Becky’s hair. It was quite a painful process for all involved, but the stylists were definitely up for the challenge, and they kept giving Becky the encouragement she needed to hang in there. And even just talking to her plainly seemed to boost the youngster’s self-esteem and confidence.
Says Kayley: “I understood how it felt to feel worthless – a child should never feel like that. I knew I had to help her, just like people helped me. We all deserve to feel beautiful.”
So after a few days of careful attention, the young woman’s hair looked great. But she was able to leave Kayley and Mariah and the salon with more than a new hairdo. She left with something she had lost a long time ago: the love she had for herself.
