Stylists Cut Katrina Victims' Stress

By JULIE PACE jpace@tampatrib.com

Published: Dec 20, 2005

TAMPA - With less than a week left to get ready for Christmas, the stylists at Nikki's Hair Gallery could use a day off.

There are gifts to wrap, cards to write and meals to cook. But on Monday - a day the salon normally is closed - the stylists came to work, not hoping for overtime pay or extra tips but to offer their services free to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Salon owner Nikki Briggs-Hanner was prompted to host the event by longtime customer and friend Cherylene Levy. Levy, a local small-business owner and general manager of the Tampa Bay Bulldogs semiprofessional football team, has made seven trips to New Orleans, delivering relief supplies and driving people from Louisiana shelters to the Tampa Bay area.

Many of those people have found jobs, homes and schools for their children, she said.

Then Levy began noticing a new problem - depression, especially among those who are away from their families for the holidays.

Knowing how a new hairdo can lift her own mood, Levy appealed to her friend Briggs-Hanner. They agreed that if Levy purchased salon products, Briggs-Hanner and her stylists would volunteer for as long as it took to take care of everyone who showed up.

Getting her six stylists to give up their day off was not a problem, Briggs-Hanner said. A stylist from another salon also volunteered.

"We were even ready to get in a Winnebago and do this [in New Orleans] if we had to," Briggs-Hanner said.

A crowd had gathered at the salon when Briggs-Hanner opened the doors at 10 a.m. For the next five hours, 36 people came to the east Tampa salon, at 3320 E. Osbourne Ave., where they were pampered by stylists dressed in red hospital scrubs and Santa hats.

Elmer Viverette, 45, hadn't had her hair done since evacuating her Vancleave, Miss., home in September. Sitting beneath a hair dryer Monday, she said the generosity of people in Tampa has helped her feel more comfortable. "I think I can live here," Viverette said.

For Charlotte Elpheage, an afternoon at the beauty salon was an opportunity to bond with her three daughters after stressful months. Elpheage, her husband, children and five extended family members were taken in by a local family who have let them live in their house since September.

Seeing her 16-, 8- and 1-year-old daughters smile while having their hair done made the morning a success for Elpheage.

"I was more excited for them to come here today than for myself," she said.

The goal was to lift the spirits of the Katrina victims, but it also was rewarding for the volunteers. "A lot of people don't have money to give, but we can give of ourselves this way," stylist Bee Williams said as she combed 14-year-old Kaitlyn Creshon's hair.

"Besides, no matter what you're going through, when you look good, you have more self-esteem," she said.

Reporter Julie Pace can be reached at (813) 865-1505.