Society embraces youth. Take a look at magazines, TV shows, and social media, it is filled with young men and women with impeccable skin. Although, this is the demographics that tends to shop the most, it also leaves out pretty much everyone over the age of 30. Yet, we all age, getting older with every year. Imagine what it does to a person’s self-esteem when they are told constantly that beauty really is on the surface.By 2060, that number will more than double to over 98 million. That is a huge population that is largely forgotten.
Nonetheless, many of these institutions have come to understand that entertainment, pampering, and social mingling can lift the residents’ moods.
Brandalyn Mae Porter, from Texas, is a nail technician. One of her clients, an elderly woman, had asked her to paint her nails clear.
Surprised that she would be asked for a plain nail polish that lacks in color and pizzazz, she had to ask why. As it turns out the woman was feeling insecure about her hands.
The elderly lady didn’t want to attract attention to that part of her body. Except this woman probably didn’t know that Porter is wiser beyond her years.
“You never know just how much someone is in need of kind words till you speak them,” she shared on Facebook.
Porter went to Aveda hair school and her father-in-law owns a salon that he hopes she will take over when he retires. Yet, Porter loves her job and clients too much.
Porter made the woman see that the age spots on her hands are not ugly, but rather that they speak volumes of a life lived with stories and experiences one can only dream of.
Porter shared the photo of the woman’s hand and her story. “Today I painted a new residents nails at work and as we were going over colors, she mentioned she wanted clear. The only thought that came to my mind was ‘CLEAR?! That’s no fun,'” she posted. “I asked her why she wanted clear and she said, ‘My hands are ugly, I don’t want to draw attention to them.’ I then carefully responded with, ‘Your hands tell the story of your life. They tell the story of love, of care and adventure. These hands have touched and held things that most people can only wish to one day.’ And with that, she went with the color pink for her nails. Sometimes what we are so insecure with, others find beauty in.”
