VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Editor's note: This story is a part of our "Making A Mark" series.
At Pigtails & Crewcuts in Virginia Beach, kids can get haircuts and styles in a fun, friendly environment. Stylists work with children to make their time at the salon enjoyable.
The experience was no different for 10-year-old Anderson Fullwood when he sat in Jennifer Rizzotti's chair.
It was Fullwood's first haircut in a while; he had grown his hair out and wanted to keep most of his length.
"Can you just add some layers?", Fullwood asked Rizzotti. She agreed, noting that she'd also trim his ends.
It was a pretty simple task for Rizzotti. After all, she's been a cosmetologist for more than 30 years, spending the last three at Pigtails & Crewcuts.
"Even if the children are crying, when the haircut's over, they always say, 'Thank you', and they have their big smiles, and they move on," Rizzotti said.
But outside of the children's salon, where young customers come to have fun, not everyone approaches Rizzotti's chair with the same enthusiasm.
She's not just a cosmetologist but a patient care technician on the oncology unit at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital. There, she offers to cut patients' hair for free. And for them, she said, the experience is often accompanied by mixed emotions.
"A lot of times, their hair has been super full and thick, and they're losing it in abundance. Lots of tears," Rizzotti said. "The patients come across angry, and they're not. They just don't know [how] to deal with... the news that they've gotten-- that they're not getting better, or, you know, that they've found out that another family member now has been diagnosed."
And the effects of cancer treatment can further complicate an already challenging journey. When their hair begins to fall out, Rizzotti said she tries to encourage them to not see it as a loss but as a rebirth.
"We're getting rid of the old, and we're hopefully bringing out the new hair that's [going to] come out," she said.
When Rizzotti first joined the hospital staff nearly four years ago, her workdays were spent taking vitals, checking blood pressure, helping clean rooms, and providing comfort and postmortem care.
Then, about two years ago, a woman named Robin was admitted on her unit.
"I went in just to do vitals, and she was crying. And she said, 'Well, my hair's all falling out,'" Rizzotti said. "I said, 'Well, I'm a hairdresser. I mean, I can help you with that... We'll turn this [room] into a mini salon, and I'll get you started."
The two talked through some styling ideas. Rizzotti gathered hair products and cleared them with the oncologist for use.
By the time Rizzotti was finished, Robin had a pink mohawk.
"She was super excited and happy and strutted her stuff all over the hospital for everyone to see," Rizzotti said.
Since then, she's styled dozens of patients — turning a simple haircut into an experience for them.
"If they can get out of the bed... I put, like, a white sheet on the floor. I put their chair on there. Then, I drape them... I get out the blow dryer. If they want a curling iron, I bring a curling iron," Rizzotti said. "I just style it. And then, they get up and look in the mirror, and they feel so much better about themselves."
She also goes the extra mile for her bedridden patients, enlisting the help of a few coworkers to hold them up while she cuts and styles their hair.
Meanwhile, Robin occasionally returns to the hospital for cancer treatment.
"Every time [Robin] comes in, she sends me a little text message and says, 'Bring your shears, I need a haircut!'", Rizzotti said. "When she's due for a haircut, it seems to be when she's due to her chemo. So, I go and cut her hair."
The experience is like a moment of normalcy for her patients, Rizzotti said, that can have a lasting impact on their lives.
"It makes them feel for a second that they're not sick," Rizzotti said. "Even for 15 minutes, they forgot where they were."
And she believes that providing this service to some of the people who need it most will have a lasting impact on her, too.
"I love to work with patients, and I love to cut hair. So, I get to do both. I get, like, the best out of both worlds," Rizzotti said. "And it makes me feel good that I can make them feel good."