LAUREL — There's a boutique in Laurel helping build women's confidence, one strand at a time.
Lori's Lemonade Stand, located inside the First in Hair salon on Main Street, opened last year and has helped hundreds of women with Alopecia, cancer and hair loss.
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"I lost all my hair 10 and a half years ago. I have what's called Alopecia Universalis, and that's when you lose your hair... from head to toe," said the boutique's owner, Lori Powell, on Friday.
When Powell lost her hair at 50 years old, she lost her confidence and felt alone. According to Powell, Alopecia Universalis is a very rare type of Alopecia, so she had a hard time finding others with the same condition.
"(When you lose your eyebrows and eyelashes), you truly feel like an alien, and you don't look like yourself. It's loss. It's not really loss of hair... but it's loss," Powell said.
Alopecia Universalis is an auto-immune disease with no known cure.
"It was very traumatizing (when I started losing hair). It's very scary. I just knew I had cancer. That's what I thought it was," Powell said.
Powell opened her boutique in Southern California before later opening a second location in Laurel. She has since accumulated about 800 clients, both in-person and online.
While Powell mostly serves a population of younger women, she also serves young children, such as Eva Sweed.
"(When Eva put on her wig), she was beaming from ear to ear. It was actually kind of surreal. She was so happy," said Eva's mom, Trisha Sweed.
Trisha is a hairdresser in Columbus, so she suspected her daughter had Alopecia. She told MTN Eva started losing her hair after her first birthday.
"It was a little scary at first. We were like, 'what is wrong with our child.' We did think it was cancer," she said Friday.
Eva has the same type of Alopecia as Powell. Powell said out of her 800 clients, only four (including Eva) have Alopecia Universalis. With the rarity of the condition, it brought the two closer together.
"I think she had that connection with Lori, since (she) can touch and see someone who is going through what (she's) going through," Trisha said.
With Powell's unique and inspiring story, women with hair conditions and cancer all over Montana have visited the First in Hair salon since December.
"I've learned so much from her. But, it's just been great having her around... It's just gotten busier and busier," said the salon's owner, Mara Stepper.
Stepper and Powell told MTN they help build women's confidence together. After women get their wig fitting by Powell, they can then visit Stepper in the salon for a cut and style.
"I would invite people to come and see what we do here. Visit with our stylists. See if we can help in any way we can, from kids right on up to grandma," Stepper said.
