“A child should never feel so worthless.”
A hairdresser “had one of the hardest experiences” in her career when she refused to shave off a depressed teenager’s hair – spending 13 hours fixing it for her instead.
Kayley Olsson, a student hairdresser from Iowa, recently shared the story of the anonymous teenager who sat in her salon chair on Facebook.
She told how the 16 year old had been dealing with severe depression for years, leaving her feeling so worthless that she was unable to brush her own hair.
The unnamed teen asked Kayley to shave off her hair in time for her school picture day – but the hairdresser refused, spending 13 hours fixing it for her instead.
The post reads:
“I had a 16 year 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 effects 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 schools pictures today, you made me feel like me again'”.
And Kayley’s post has touched hearts around the world, racking up almost 70,000 shares and more than 166,000 reactions.
Thousands of people have also taken to the comments to share their own stories about their battles with depression.
Images via Kayley Olsson’s Facebook.
