Hairstylist Helps Woman With Depression Feel Like Herself Again

The stylist spent a whole day repairing the woman’s hair

Depression is a tricky illness with many unintended side effects. It can make the simple act of getting out of bed and leaving the house difficult, as it did for one woman, who tried again and again to get her hair cut before finally gathering the strength to make it happen.

Knowing what a huge deal it was, the stylist went out of her way to help the woman feel like herself again. And the end result is simply beautiful.

Hairstylist Kate Langman shared the story, keeping her client’s identity private. It was picked up by the Facebook page Love What Matters, where it quickly went viral. Langman explains that the woman came into The Salon inside Ulta, where she works as a stylist, to buy products to fix her damaged hair. Langman had a better idea.

She writes, “About a month ago, I saw this women pulling every product off the “All Soft” Redken line. When I asked her if she needed any help, she began to tell me her story. A very long story short, this women suffered with a very deep depression.”

As a result of her illness, the woman hadn’t gotten out of bed in six months, which meant she hadn’t washed or brushed her hair in about that long. “She kept pulling it back into this bun which after that long of time turned into a huge dread lock,” Langman explains. “The bun was so matted that it felt like she literally had rocks on the back of her head. This is when I mentioned to just put all the product back on the shelf.”

Langman set up an appointment for the next day so she could help her work the matting out of her hair, but the woman didn’t show up. She called two weeks later to book another appointment, but never made it to that one either. She recounts, “At this point I figured she wasn’t going to ever end up coming in. It actually, kind of, broke my heart. I wanted to help her so much.”

That is, until this week, when the woman showed up at the salon without an appointment, telling the stylist how she’d managed to get out of bed that day and wanted to have her hair done. Of course, Langman was eager to accommodate. “I didn’t care how late I stayed, I wanted to make sure she got taken care of. She wanted to keep it on the longer side if it was at all possible. Most of the time the advice is to just cut it off..But I wanted to make this work for her.”

Langman discussed the process with the woman saying, “I wanted her to know how hard I was going to try to make her feel great again. I explained to her prices and she said ‘I don’t care about the price, I just want to look like myself again.'”

The stylist got to work, and from start to finish, it took over eight hours to repair the woman’s hair. “4 1/2 hours of combing, and 3 hours coloring and 1/2 hour for the cut. All of this time, I’m just telling myself to keep going.. that this is going to be all so worth it.”

And it was.

Langman writes, “By the end of this service, I could see the sparkle in her eyes and I could see her cheeks get rosy pink from the excitement of not only being able to run her fingers through her hair again, but she felt herself again. I changed someone’s life today.. & I’ll never ever forget it.”

Even in the best of circumstances, a new haircut can give a serious bump to a person’s self-esteem. It’s hard to grasp what it meant to Langman’s client, who was so ill she had neglected herself for months. To finally see her hair looking like this must have been incredible. Her illness is still there, but having her hair revived seems to have given her a much-needed boost.

And Langman definitely isn’t taking this opportunity to help someone for granted.

“If this ever makes its way back to her, I want her to know how great, wonderful, kind, loving, and how strong of a person she is. And not only those things, but how beautiful she is.. she deserves nothing but happiness.. & I’m so thankful and so grateful I got to help with her first step.”