This Hairdresser Saved A Depressed Teen’s Matted Hair Just in Time for School Photos

A hairdresser in the US won thousands of fans after sharing the heartwarming story of how she spent two days transforming the matted hair of a teen girl who struggles with severe depression.

Kayley Olsson, from Iowa in the US, shared photos of the 16-year-old’s incredibly matted hair on her Facebook page and told how the girl had asked her to “cut it all off”.

The hairdresser said she was heartbroken by her client’s situation and she and her colleague Mariah Wenger, who are both beauty therapy students, refused to cut the teen’s waist-length hair.

“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,” Kayley told the BBC.

“Shaving was a last resort and something none of us going in wanted to do,” Mariah added.

The women untangled and combed the teenager’s hair for 13 hours, spending two days with her.

“It took a lot of encouraging words, reassurance, and just plain conversation to take her mind off of the pain involved in removing the matting and to boost her self-esteem and confidence.

“I was able to very closely relate to her mental health problems and the daily struggle that comes with them, due to my struggles with postpartum depression and anxiety,” explained Mariah, who has two children.

“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,” Kayley said.

After detangling it as far as shoulder length, Kayley and Mariah cut and shaped the teenager’s hair.

Kayley’s post has since gone viral, as people touched by the heartwarming gesture sent messages of support to both the hairdressers and their unnamed customer.

“Today I had one of the hardest experiences with my client who I am keeping anonymous,” she writes in her post that has been shared more than 75,000 times.

“I had a 16 year old girl come in with who has been dealing with severe depression for a few years now. She got to the point where she felt so down and so worthless she couldn’t even brush her hair, she told me she only got up to use the restroom.

“She starts back at school in a few weeks but she has her school pictures today. When she walked in she told us just cut it all off I can’t deal with the pain of combing it out, she called herself worthless for it.

“It honestly broke my heart and we tried everything we could to keep this child’s hair for her!

“At the end of the day I want this to be a lesson to people. MENTAL HEALTH is a thing, it affects people all around the world and of all ages! PARENTS take it serious 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.

“After being here 8 hours yesterday and 5 hours today we finally made this beautiful girl smile and feel like she IS worth something! Her last words to me was

“I will actually smile for my school’s pictures today, you made me feel like me again.”

Her hair looks absolutely lovely. It is always amazing how much better we feel about ourselves when we’ve had our hair done. We can only imagine how much this beautiful transformation has positively affected this young woman.

And what a powerful message from her hairdresser too. Totally worth it!

Source: Facebook/Kayley Olsson