The most impactful makeover I’ve ever done was on Sunday April 10th, 2011.  Life happens.  Sometimes great and sometimes we are faced with HUGE personal challenges. My mom, Ingrid, is my hero.  She was a unbelievable role model as I grew up.  She never told me I couldn’t, can’t or wouldn’t.  She was hard working,  extremely friendly & generous.  I can’t think of one person that didn’t love her. She owned her own clothing business.  On the weekends she set up a booth at local craft shows and sold “Ingrid’s Designs from the Heart”.  She also taught aerobics classes 3 days a week at the Park & Rec building down the street from our home to local moms trying to drop the “baby weight”.   She had diehard followers.   I remember her 80’s style- leotard, headband & short hair in 1985.  It wasn’t until about 7 years ago that I found old pictures and thoroughly appreciated her 60’s fabulousness.  Beehives as high as the sky. Incredible.
I opened p!ay hair lounge in July 2006.  My 65 year old mom was soooo excited & proud.  We talked almost everyday.        Only 3 months into my new venture, September 30, 2006, marked a very dark day.  She had a brain aneurysm.  She narrowly survived.  Her life and mine,  changed dramatically.  Her right side of her body was lifeless, putting her in a wheelchair & her speech and awareness was almost non-existant.
At the end of this January,  she became very ill & was hospitalized again.  She fought for her life against aspirational pneumonia for over 5 weeks in ICU before becoming somewhat stable.  A tracheotomy was added in her neck to help her breathe.  Needless to say, the last 3 months my mom has been away from her home have been extremely challenging for my family.  Thanks to the amazing support of p!ay hair lounge, my boyfriend Todd & cheeseburgers, I’m dealing.

I am fortunate to live nearby.  My mom is at a sub-acute care rehab in between the salon & my home.  I go to hang with her, before & after work and on my days off.
Two weeks ago I was able to bring in my favorite acupuncturist, Lin Lin of Yin Yang Acupuncture.  After the first treatment my mom was able to her right arm & leg for the first time since her aneurysm.  So far, it has been 5 treatments & she is beginning to comprehend life a bit more, even shocking the nurses by saying a few words.  I decided that it was time to catch her hair up with the rest of her recovery.  It was overgrown, gray and mucky.  My mom always had short uber blonde hair.  In the recent years, her health challenges made other care a priority.
NOW, with the recent upturns, it was the time for her makeover!

I arrived at the care center at 8:30a.m. on Sunday and set up in the “beauty salon”.  A shampoo sink & mirror in an “office”.  File folders,stapler, desk, phone, etc. You know, office.  Before I set up I realized I forgot to pack a tint brush.  Fortunately for the “activities room”, I was able to secure a paint brush to aid me in applying my mom’s color.   I unwound my mom’s messy bun and brushed it out.  She scowled at me in the mirror and I know why.  It was gray.  GRAY GRAY GRAY! Eeeek eeek eek.  NOT ok.  Only some remaining “kinda” blonde hung on the ends.  I got out my shears and dry cut her hair.  I was challenged by the oxygen tube wrapped around her ears and by the high back of the wheelchair.   I chose some upbeat tunes using my phone and Pandora,  slid the wastebasket up to the back of the wheelchair and began to snip away.  My mom started smiling and I could feel her relief.  Optimistic that she would respond well to her new hair, I kept snipping just trusting my gut.  Once I was finished with the cut, she smiled and answered “yeah” when I asked if she liked it. Phew.

Next I highlighted her with a creamy blonde color and my “paintbrush”.   Now for the fun part.  Have you ever shampooed a client in a wheelchair? I think I did during beauty school, but those days are 15 years behind me.  The shampoo bowl was mounted too high.  There was a weird contraption that Velcrod around her neck and dropped UPWARD into the sink. Yes, UPWARD.   I knew there was going to be a problem.   Good thing my mom was a good sport and my ego is small.  I completely SOAKED her.  “Would you like a shower with your shampoo today?” Probably not going to be a hot new salon service.  I changed her shirt, blew out her hair and just when I went to show her the results, she was asleep.  Fast, fast asleep.  So the question that came to my mind was “Is a sleeping client a happy one?” I didn’t get my answer, but tears did come to my dad’s eyes when he arrived a few minutes later, because for once in the last 4 1/2 years she looked like the healthy, young Ingrid we all love.

When not doing my mom’s hair, you can find me at my salon, p!ay hair lounge in Simi Valley,CA.

& 

Did you like this? If so, please ,

about it, and subscribe to the blog RSS feed.