Volunteer Work

All Pictures are of Regular Clients,
Not YWCA Residents.

In addition to finishing up my undergraduate degree in journalism and cultivating my fine art skills, I am also a self-employed hairdresser. Oh! I forgot mother. How could I forget?! Seriously, my beautiful daughter is so awesome that I can forget about motherhood being a job.

Anyways, I had the privilege over the weekend to volunteer my hairdressing skills up to the YWCA. The YWCA is the only domestic violence shelter for women and children in Oklahoma County.

As a future journalist in OKC the former fact really unsettles me. Not a lot of news coverage is given to domestic violence issues, yet Oklahoma ranks number three in the nation for the number of women killed by men.

I was able to get ten women's hair cut on Saturday. The women were super sweet and polite. I felt really honored to be asked to come back on a monthly basis.

I was also made aware of some tough situations for these women. One was open about telling me how her boyfriend would take anything away that made her happy.

Two boys were deathly afraid of my clippers. The ten-year-old started crying, and squirmed when I cut around his ears. His mother said this was scary for him. Why when the clippers didn't hurt? I was a nice lady. The boy was traumatized by clippers.

Two pregnant women came in. One looked down nearly the whole time. The other joked about how my friend, who came to help me, better not get in trouble, because she had DNA all over her. She seemed too sweet with the most adorable three-year-old boy to ever think about DNA or people getting in trouble. It was the world she was born into.

I was really surprised by how hard it was to get help cutting these women's hair. I had no idea how un-humble some people are. As for me, I loved going to the YWCA, and I look forward to going again.