A hair stylist from Simsbury, Connecticut recently shared this heartwarming message about a client with a peculiar request. A semi-regular client walked in and request to have his hair colored purple. At first she was surprised by the request, then he explained why. Read her Facebook post below.
Yesterday, one of my clients walked into the shop unexpectedly (he only gets his hair cut 1-2 times a year). It hadn’t been too long since I saw him last, so I said, “Hey, what’s going on?” He smiled at me and hardly said hello as he handed me a folded up piece of paper.
“Can you make my hair this color?”
I scanned the paper quickly and didn’t see any images sticking out to me that I thought would be obvious. There was a lot of purple text and bubbles so I asked him if that’s the color he meant.
“Yes,” he told me, “It’s for Alzheimer’s.”
I gathered that quickly from reading the fine print on the sheet. Lucky for us, I have an obsession with hair products and bought the whole line of Joico Color Intensity. I work in a barber shop/men’s salon, so the only color we offer is simple to camouflage gray hair with their natural color. Aside for some close family and friends, I don’t do any color outside of my manikin heads, so I thought this would be fun.
I told him that I would absolutely do it; he actually hopped off the floor with joy. It was strange to me in a way, not because it made him so happy but I have never seen him so animated. He was always pleasant, but he mostly answered any of my small talk or questions with a smile or head nod. He never told me too much about his family or life in general. As a hair stylist, I know when and when not to pry on a client so I never pushed. It was really nice to interact with him like this.
“How long do you want it to last?” I asked him.
His smile became gentle and light-hearted, “well, we have been married 47 years, so the longer the better.”
Today, at 1:00 PM, that man colored his hair bright purple to honor his sick wife. It’s sad how many people are affected by Alzheimer’s each day and how little funding goes towards it. It weighed heavy on my heart today as we lightly discussed the disease and he looked me in the eyes and told me that he just wanted to feel like he could do something; anything at all to help, and his hair was the only thing he felt that he could control.
So people of Connecticut, if you see an older gentleman walking around with vivid amethyst purple hair, realize that he IS trying to bring attention to himself, so he can bring attention to the cause. This is a man deeply devoted to the love of his life.
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