News Archive
The Charlotte Observer - 3/21/05
Salon Lends A Soothing Touch
Hospice workers, family of sick get treated to the works
By David Perlmutt
Touch can go a long way to untangle tattered nerves. Tonya Reid and her staff of hair stylists, manicurists, pedicurists and skin specialists see that every day.
"We are allowed to touch--physically touch--people in a very safe environment," said Tonya Reid, owner of T. Reid & Company salon/spa in Charlotte. "I don't think people get touched enough."
Especially those involved in the frontline care of the dying.
So each Tuesday this month the folks at T. Reid are putting their touch to the frazzled nerves of family survivors, volunteers and caregivers from Hospice & Pallative Care Charlotte Region. Free of charge, they are cutting hair, trimming and filing nails (finger and toes), exfoliating feet, moistening skin or massaging the tired shoulders of people like Hospice nurse Tina Hughes and volunteer Candy McPherson--whose pasison it is to help grief-stricken families facing the death of terminally ill relatives.
"We are caregivers, too; all day long we are caring for people, nuturing people and making sure they feel good inside and out," said Reid, owner of the salon. "So it's not that big a stretch for us to understand what Hospice workers are going through."
Half the staff at T. Reid know first-hand what Hospice workers go through. Many customers have experienced Hospice, too. So it seemed a perfect fit to offer services to Hospice as a way to get involved with the community.
Hospice nurse Hughes and volunteer McPherson were shocked with they were told what T. Reid was offering. Last Tuesday, Hughes got a haircut from stylist Andrea Blalock.
"It's usually us providing the care, so it's nice to be pampered," said Hughes, who for 11 years has cared for sick children. Upstairs, McPherson, a volunteer for four years, relaxed while pedicurist Katy Grieco worked on her feet.
"This is wonderful," McPherson said as Grieco massage in the exfoliate crème. "It is very humbling--we don't expect this kindness towards us."
The idea came from Melinda Taylor, who supplies Alterna Haircare products to 150 salons in the Charlotte region, including T. Reid. Taylor arranged the month of Tuesdays with the local Hospice and established a sign-up system. Reid has enlisted help from suppliers, including Alterna, to donate products. "We just wanted these people to have an evening of being pampered. We know how hard their job is," Taylor said.
Hospice workers or family survivors sign up for one service on Tuesdays in March. Between 5 and 9 p.m., T. Reid's closes to everyone else.
Taylor has a friend who got help from Hospice when her father was dying of lung cancer. The volunteers not only provided care, but cleaned house and reminded the family that bills needed to be paid. Working with Hospice, Taylor is pushing the idea to all the salons she supples. One salon, Savvy Salon and Day Spa in Cornelius, has provided similar services recently for Hospice Lake Norman.
She hopes the events will become annual and is recruiting stylists or other specialists to become a Hospice volunteer and make house calls to patients. "The Hospice people tell me that's one of their biggest needs, for these professionals to volunteer an house a month and go into homes and cut hair," Taylor said. "These people are sick and can't get out."
Reid learned what Hospice families go through when fer father, Bill Duane, died of a heart attack three years ago. She was moved by the help she got from friends, and the cards and reflections of her father. "In a way I'm passing along my appreciation for that to these Hospice workers," she said. Duane, who ran a popular on 7th Street, taught his daughter the power of touch. No one made it out of his shop without a hug from the proprietor. She carried the practice to her salon.
"My clients know I'm going to hug them before they leave," she said. Touch is a sense of connection. For these Hospice workers, the great thing about coming in here is that nothing else they will be able to do hair cut, or nails manicured. "The rest of the world will be there when they step outside. While they are here, we take care of them."
