Saturday, May 24th DASH hosted our second Spa Day! After months of preparation it was a day of rest and rejuvenation complete with snacks, childcare, bonding and spativities.

The day was a flurry of activity. One of our lovely front desk volunteers, Cynthia, is also a licensed cosmetologist. She spent her time talking to groups of residents about their skin types and going through basic skin care techniques. At the end of the day she provided full facials for two lucky women! A definite highlight of the afternoon was seeing a mother-daughter duo get facials together.

While Cynthia was was doing facials, Chicara and her team from Chicara’s Dream Salon (of Baltimore) were doing hair. They talked to residents about their hair types, gave tips and even styled and cut hair. While they were scheduled to stay until 6pm, they ended up staying until past 9pm so as to not leave anyone out. As one of the advocates states, “I felt she [Chicara] went above and beyond to meet each residents desires, each resident got exactly what she wanted. She even stayed an extra three hours to make sure everyone got serviced!”

In the other room Michaela, a recent DASH intern, and Princess were doing nails. They were amazing! While neither is professionally trained, no one could tell. As one resident said, “they were using the latest designs which takes a lot of extra effort.” They had every color imaginable plus gems and glitter.

Upstairs, Margaret, our new massage volunteer, was giving massages to grateful residents. We are so excited to have Margaret come in on a regular basis from now on as massage not only relaxes and soothes muscles, it also helps with anxiety, headaches and a host of other serious issues. Residents came downstairs looking more relaxed and peaceful after just 15 minutes of work. We are so thankful to all the volunteers who made this Saturday a success!

We had cupcakes donated by Georgetown Cupcakes!

The best part of the day was not the spa treatments or the cupcakes, though they were wonderful. It was the community that grew and the conversations that were had among the residents, volunteers and staff. During the six hours waiting to get hair done and drinking cucumber water, residents made new friendships, gossiped and sang along to Beyonce. At DASH we are not just a housing program, we are place for survivors to heal and grow on their own terms. Spa day showed us how we can heal and grow as a community.