Salon helps the abused

Remember that old TV commercial for a hair coloring product that went "Only her hairdresser knows for sure"?

Turns out they weren't necessarily talking about whether Sweet Thang was dyeing her locks: Sometimes, it seems, the hair dresser can be the first and only one to know whether the woman is being beaten and abused by her lover.

"Your body shows it," Renee Jankowsky of Generations Salon and Day Spa told me Wednesday. She cited hair loss as one easy-to-overlook possible sign that someone is a domestic abuse victim.

That's why Jankowsky's salon has teamed up throughout the holiday season with Interact, the Triangle agency that provides support and shelter for women who have been victims of domestic or sexual abuse. They're working together to help the women who are preparing to go back out and face the world -- usually after taking an involuntary hiatus from it to hide out or heal.

"We feel they've been beaten down so long, we want to help them," Jankowsky said of the women they've worked with. "Interact helps with the inner beauty; we're trying to polish the outer beauty."

Operating on the principle that it's a lot easier to face the world without a black eye and bruised limbs, Jankowsky's salon gives Interact clients every pampering treatment paying customers receive, Jankowsky said. "If a caseworker calls us to say that a woman has a job interview, we give her a full makeover -- a manicure, waxing, massage, pedicure, hair coloring, whatever they need to get back to 100 percent."

Jankowsky said her employees "have been trained to look for signs of abuse. ... We met with someone from Interact, and they showed us what to look for. We should have a psychology degree."

When they spot signs of domestic abuse, she said, they give the possible victim a pamphlet directing them to Interact's services.

Laura Hilton, director of community relations for Interact, said there are similarities between what her organization does for women and what Jankowsky's salon does. "What Generations does in the context of empowering women is to help them feel good about themselves by helping them look good. We do it through counseling and focusing on their emotional and mental well-being."

Just as with many of you, I confess, my altruistic, do-gooder gene is activated primarily during the holiday season. That's why I called a local rescue mission to see whether they needed volunteers to serve meals today only to discover that I'm not the only one wanting to help at this time of the year. "We can use help the rest of the year, too," someone on the other end of the phone told me without a trace of sarcasm or irony.

Neither Interact nor Jankowsky is like that, though. Interact serves women and children, and Jankowsky has made her salon available as a safe haven year-round. Her salon participated in a "lipstick luncheon" last spring with radio station Mix 101.5 and other businesses to raise money for Interact and provide makeovers for its clients. You can drop off at her salon toiletries, donations and other things that women and children in Interact's shelter may need.

Generations is at 10370 Moncreiffe Road in Brierdale Shopping Center.

"We do this all year long," she said, "and we'll do it as long as we're open. We've been blessed to have this facility, and we want to do something good for these women."