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40 | BEAUTY LAUNCHPAD | JANUARY 2018 Live & Learn/ POV Celebrity stylist and salon owner Marie Ferro makes a difference by offering makeovers to disadvantaged women. The Power of Transformation I have always had a passion for doing beauty makeovers! I feel what is so rewarding for women is the instant outer change, which creates a connection to one's inner sense of well-being. When I arrived in Malibu, CA, 29 years ago, there was a morning show called Good Morning Malibu. I became a frequent guest, performing makeovers on the show. At the time, there weren't many professional hairdressers in the area, so I quickly built a huge clientele of celebrities and people connected in the entertainment industry. Combining my work with celebrities and my love for doing makeovers led to appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and How Do I Look? on the Style Network. After seeing my makeovers on TV and in print, women began to contact me and explain how watching others' positive experiences led them to make changes in their own lives. At that point, my daughter was headed off to college, which left me with more time to volunteer. I felt that I had been given so much and I wanted to give back in some way. Melissa Beyeler, who started the Friends & Helpers Foundation, was a client of mine at the time. I told her my idea of getting involved with disadvantaged women and doing beauty makeovers. Melissa was encouraging and connected me with shelters in the San Fernando Valley. When I arrived at the shelters, the women didn't know about my background and I had no idea what they had endured in their lives—I learned so much from spending time with them. I started bringing beauty products and doing haircuts and styling; the women got so excited and it was touching to see how something as simple as lipstick could create so much joy. I brought a makeup artist and photographer to take photos of the women, and after they were made up I gave them a printed photo of themselves. That was the most touching part, as the women would often cry when they saw the photo of themselves looking beautiful and confi dent. Many of their children were there and wanted a picture of their mom looking and feeling beautiful, which created a joyous ripple effect. I started talking to Melissa about my experience in the shelters, relaying that after food and shelter, the next thing these women really wanted was beauty products. This evolved into creating beauty bags for the shelters; now every holiday season, Friends & Helpers packs thousands of beauty bags, which contain everything from shampoo and conditioner to socks and other necessities. I'm always in search of donations; there is never a donation too large or too small. What is so wonderful about Friends & Helpers is that it is completely run by volunteers, and 100 percent of the donations go to women and children in need. By educating myself about these women and children, I am now able to pass on the information to clients that are interested in helping. I have found that people are intrinsically good and they generally want to help—they just want to see their donations put to good use. —As told to KK COURTESY OF MARIE FERRO Marie Ferro TK Melissa Beyeler, founder of Friends & Helpers, with Ferro. Ferro, Beyeler and Lynne Ballew assist at a Friends & Helpers collection drive.