Depression is from the enemy. When we feel hopeless and worn down, we need to turn to God and ask him to restore our hearts. Depression does crazy things to us and makes us forget what is really important by dragging us in a downward spiral where we start to believe that nothing really matters anymore. We stop taking care of ourselves and begin to pull away from those we love.
One extreme case of depression was revealed when a 16-year-old student went into a hair salon. The teen was battling depression and had not even cared enough to brush her hair for months. Her hair was now a matted clump that she didn’t believe could be salvaged, so she dragged herself to the salon to shave it off since picture day was coming up soon.
She was matched with a hair stylist named Kayley Olsson. Kayley was so upset after seeing how this teen had let herself go and couldn’t believe she wanted to shave it off because she claimed it was “worthless” and unsalvageable. Instead of going along with her request, Kayley decided to do something very special for this teen. She posted the whole encounter on Facebook.
Kayley explained that the teen shared her story and told Kayley that 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.” Kayley worked with the mangled hair and was able to completely transform it into an amazing style!
“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,” Kayley wrote. “A child should never feel so worthless to not even want to brush their hair.”
It took 13 hours to transform her hair, but Kayley claims that it was well worth it. “After being here 8 hours yesterday and 5 hours today we finally made this beautiful girl smile and feel like she IS worth something!” she wrote. “Her last words to me was ‘I will actually smile for my school’s pictures today, you made me feel like me again.’”
Now that sure must have made Kayley feel like those 13 hours were well worth it! “It really truly warmed my heart that I could do that with something as little as a haircut,” Kayley said.
Please share this story to let others know about the importance of mental health and encourage them to be kind today.