A cut of confidence for marginalized women
Drop-in support group and salon partner give workers freedom, control over lives
A handful of women, swaddled in white towels and synthetic black robes, chat excitedly, comparing cuts and colours, as they are ferried, one by one, between hair wash stations and stylists’ chairs.
It’s a standard sight for a chic westend salon, save for one detail.
The women at Studio67 this morning are not the young professionals who populate the lofts and condo towers of this King St. W. and Bathurst St.-area neighbourhood.
They’re peer outreach workers at Sistering, a women’s drop-in and support organization.
Some have been homeless. Some have been sex workers. Some continue to fight drug addiction and mental health issues. Some are just one bad month away from being back on the street.
Today, though, they’re just women relaxing with friends.
“This is the first time I’ve ever gone to a salon with a (group of women),” Dana said.
“To be able to spend a day hanging out getting our hair done, it’s really nice and it’s not an experience I’ve gotten.”
She and most of the other women prefer not to have their last names used because of troubled pasts, Sistering said.
Dana spent close to a decade with a $300- to $400-a-day crack habit, feeling isolated from the outside world.
“I was suffering severely from depression. I didn’t get out of bed for nine years except to smoke crack.”
Once she connected with Sistering, Dana began to pull herself out of addiction and social isolation.
She’s still “underhoused,” stuck on a waiting list for an affordable home, paying rent she can’t afford on an apartment that’s practically condemned. The last time her hair was cut, a few months ago, Dana did it herself. It was uneven. She hasn’t felt right about it since.
“When you don’t like your hair it really sucks,” she said.
A trip to the salon is a chance to get the look she wants, and an opportunity to exert control over her own life, she said.
“It’s a chance . . . to say we’re not just addicts, we’re people, we have feelings and (are) able to do nice things with the ladies.”
Studio67 has opened its doors to the women of Sistering one day a month since the spring, offering free hair and makeup treatments to women who, for the most part, would never be able to afford them on their own.
“Our motto is, ‘Everybody deserves to have hair they like,’ ” said salon owner Chanel Cezair. “I find that it’s an avenue that’s a little forgotten about.”
Coming into work on Sistering days is a pick-me-up in dreary, busy weeks, she added.
“The moment you come in you’re like ‘Ah, this is awesome.’ ”
Sistering runs a 24-hour-a-day drop-in for homeless and vulnerable women. They provide a safe space for women to stay and promote safe drug use and safe sex, handing out condoms, clean needles and clean crack pipes.
“Women can come get hot meals, shower, do their laundry. We have case workers, we have on-site psychiatrists, doctors,” said Carol Danis, who runs Sistering’s peer harmreduction program.
The “peers,” the women getting their hair done, are women who are, or have been, homeless or precariously housed.
“They can relate to women on the street the way a staff person can’t,” said Sistering executive director Patricia O’Connell. “They’ve been there, they’ve lived the experience, and they’re on the other side or working their way through it.”
One of the peers, Jessica, held out a pair of tiny coloured brushes, showing off the dyes she’s having put in her hair. There’s a dark brown, and a bright red for tone.
“I think it’s awesome for women to get a chance to come and get their hair done,” she said.
She pointed across the room to Karen, another Sistering peer, whose new hairdo Jessica has deemed “awesome.”
“I got the Grace Jones look,” Karen said, running her hand over her short-cropped hair. “I’ve always wanted this type of haircut.”
Karen lived on the street for 15 years. She smoked crack. She was a sex worker. She has schizophrenia.
Now, Karen works multiple jobs. She’s had housing since 2002. She said she considers herself “more blessed” than many of the other women at Sistering.
Still, a day at Studio67 is a rare and fulfilling opportunity.
“For once, I’m in control,” Karen said. “It’s not someone else in control of my life. For once, it’s me.”
It’s a “great boost” to be able to walk into a high-end salon without being judged or stigmatized, Danis said.
“This kind of opportunity to go to a five-star salon and have them totally cater to their hair and beauty is such a plus,” she said.
“They look great, they’re happy,” O’Connell said. “One of the women from (last month) said to me, ‘The women at Studio67 treated me so nicely. They gave me a great haircut, they gave me a cup of coffee, they treated me like a real person.’ That just says it all.”