Hairdresser transforms depressed teen's matted hair and she looks totally different

A hairdresser from Iowa helped a 16-years-old girl to feel good again, if only for a while when she refused to shave her hair and instead dedicated two days of work to transform it for her. For some people getting a haircut can be a bit stressful, and some hairdressers know it, so they’re trying to help.

Kayley Olsson was having an average day at work when a teenage girl came into her shop with matted hair asking her to please “cut it all off.” Her story touched Olsson’s heart, and she refused to go down the easy road with the girls’ hair. Instead, she dedicated 12 hours of work to fix it.

The girl explained to Kayley she had been depressed all summer and felt so worthless and down she was not even motivated enough to brush her hair. She only got up from her bed to go to the bathroom.

“Just cut it all off,” the girl said, referring to her tangled hair. “I can’t deal with the pain of combing it out.”

What came was a long process in which Kayley worked untangling the girl’s hair for eight hours the first day, and the next one, they spent another five hours cutting it and giving it some treatments and color. The final result left Kayley feeling satisfied and the girl feeling good about herself.

The next day, the girl would be taking pictures for her new school year, and she told Olsson “I will actually smile for my school pictures today, you made me feel like me again.”

Kayley’s encounter with the girl made her reflect about depression and how dangerous it is, even when there are still people that try to dismiss it and tell others to “get over it.”

She said:

“MENTAL HEALTH is a thing; it affects people all around the world and of all ages! PARENTS take it seriously, don’t just push your kids off and tell them to get over something they legitimately can’t. A CHILD should NEVER feel so worthless to not even want to brush their hair."

Depressed and anxious people are not the only ones who don’t look forward to going for a haircut.

People with a sensory processing disorder have a hard time at the barbershop, especially children who are not able to voice out their feelings.

Thinking about them, a barber in Yeovil, Somerset named Chris Sansom, has started to offer a unique service for kids with this kind of disorder.

He explained to BBC that for people with a sensory processing disorder, going into a stranger shop to sit on a chair while a man tries to put a gown on them while waving sharp objects around them can be a lot to take in.

The smells and sounds for the shop can send the kids into overdrive, and that’s why Chris allows them to stand up, bring in their favorite toys, look out the window and try to accommodate them in general while he works around them.

Most hairdressers want to make their clients feel happy and good about themselves, but for that, communication is critical.

That’s why, according to Cosmopolitan, is essential to share your story with your barber or hairdresser, is the only way they would be able to help.