When how you look improves how you feel:

Makeovers give seniors therapeutic rewards

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

  by Agnes Jasinski Staff Writer Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Riderwood resident

Dorothy Christian gets her hair coiffed by stylist Yvonne Rippeon of Greenbelt during a Friday morning visit to the Lakeside Common Salon and Spa at the Silver Spring retirement community. It is a Saturday afternoon at the most expansive of the four salons at Riderwood Village, and the staff has their hands full. Today is especially busy, as the ladies come in to get their hairdos pressed, nails painted and skin smoothed for the weekend’s activities. ‘‘It’s important to look good and do your best at it,” said Lorraine Tegeler, who has lived at Riderwood, a retirement community in Silver Spring, for a year. Sitting under the hairdryer, eyes closed, Tegeler is getting her hair set this afternoon. ‘‘You do feel a little better. ... You feel nice and fresh,” she said of her weekly hair appointment at the community’s salon. She keeps her hairstyle traditional, a silver bob of curls set by rows of thin hot rollers. Her husband, Albert, is also a frequent visitor — for haircuts, not the spa services, she said. The salon is part of a growing trend to promote the idea that aesthetics matter when it comes to healthy aging.

‘‘It’s very therapeutic for anyone to look and feel good,” said Maureen Edwards, director of the gerontology program at Montgomery College. ‘‘A lot of people are becoming wise to the idea that a healthy lifestyle really does add in to how well a person ages.” Edwards added that the baby boomer generation is becoming especially cognizant of the vast amount of cosmetic and age-reversing products being marketed for them. And a trip to the salon can make the difference mentally as well, as for many of the widows who visit weekly and want to be pampered. ‘‘They’re in a stage of their lives when they need a little more attention,” said Maria Petruccelli, manager of the salons at Riderwood Village. ‘‘A lot of the time, they feel very lonely when they move in, and they know they can always expect a warm reception here.” Many familiar faces make it a weekly ritual to visit the salon to both end the week and begin the weekend. Services cost much less than most salons of this size, with the most popular hair treatment, a shampoo and set, costing $17.

Those with insurance through Erickson Advantage are also able to use their plans to get up to eight massages a year, said Rose Anderson, who works at the salon. ‘‘It’s even cheaper than the Hair Cuttery,” Anderson said. ‘‘It’s fun to come in and do something for yourself. It’s something they can look forward to.” Other organizations in the area have made it their mission to work on seniors’ self-esteem as well, and change weary outlooks ‘‘from the outside in.”

Home Instead Senior Care, a worldwide organization with a branch in Silver Spring, provides services for the elderly who need help with daily tasks. More recently, they have been touting ‘‘senior makeovers,” a public education campaign co-sponsored by former ‘‘Dallas” star Victoria Principal to promote the value of caring for one’s appearance. ‘‘We want to give them the opportunity to get them in control of their lives, build up their self-esteem,” said Patty Maroon, who owns the Home Instead in Silver Spring. ‘‘This is a very vulnerable population. Part of remaining independent is looking and feeling good, both from the inside and the outside.” Seniors who come to Home Instead are linked with caregivers who provide not only the transportation needed to do everything from shopping to a trip to the hair salon, but tips on what to do once they get there. The services, which are available anywhere from a few hours a day to 24-hour care, cost $16.75 per hour during the week and $18.45 on weekends. Most seniors are hesitant to call the agency themselves, and many have become clients of Home Instead through concerned family members, Maroon said. ‘‘They’re not always happy to see us,” Maroon said. ‘‘They feel their independence getting stripped away.” But the real ‘‘beauty” of the makeovers is seeing how the seniors warm up to their caregivers and become more receptive to the concept behind taking more time with their appearance, she said.

The seniors at Riderwood already seem to understand. While one gets her hair washed in the shampoo basin, another gets her nails done with Lyn Tran, the manicurist. All the chairs in the adjacent waiting room are occupied, and another customer walks in and asks, ‘‘Is this the salon?” Aesthetician Germaine Dodd, or ‘‘GG” to her regulars, provides facials and microdermabrasion treatments in a relaxing atmosphere of scented candles and soft music. ‘‘It didn’t change my face at all, but it did feel good,” said Dora Spellmann, fresh from a shampoo and set, of visits with GG. ‘‘It always lifts your spirits ... like I have a date!” Theresa James, or ‘‘Terry” to her friends at Riderwood, calls her visits to the salon ‘‘the life of leisure.” ‘‘It’s a privilege, really,” she said, drying her frosted pink fingernails underneath the manicurist’s heat lamp. ‘‘Anyone feels better after one of these. It’s good to be pampered.”