Lifestyle
'When you look good, you feel good': Black hairstylists offer free services to fire victims
Angie Martin was the first client to arrive on Sunday morning at Pasadena City College, where a group of hairstylists and barbers were providing free hair services for people affected by the Eaton fire. After fleeing her Altadena home on the evening of Jan. 7, getting her hair done wasn’t top of mind, but then she learned about the two-day “Dena Strong” hair event on the news.
“I started thinking, ‘Oh, my God. How wonderful. How wonderful to be blessed to get my hair done,’” said Martin, 60, who got her hair washed and blow-dried, dyed black and braided down in a protective style so she can wear wigs.
Like many residents of Altadena, a historically Black neighborhood that was decimated by the Eaton fire, Martin expected to return home on Jan. 8. Instead, all she has left from her now-scorched apartment unit is a folder of important documents. She is temporarily living in an Airbnb unit provided by 211 LA, an organization partnering with Airbnb.org on the effort, and before Sunday, her hair was “a mess.”
For Ja’Von Paige, a hairstylist born and raised in Altadena, that was a recurring theme when talking to members of her own family who were affected by the firestorm: No one’s hair was done.
Ja’Von Paige, left, and Darshell Hannah offered free hair services and products to victims of the wildfires at Pasadena City College.
So, she decided that’s how she would give back to her community. “Who feels right if their hair isn’t done?” said Paige, 33.
Paige connected with Tara Brooks, another stylist who specializes in braiding, and Darshell Hannah, a celebrity hairstylist and president of the community service organization Charlee’s Angels, to host the event. Nearly 250 people, including first responders, attended the event, which received donations from several businesses including Beyoncé‘s Cécred and Wolfgang Puck.
On Sunday, 44 booths inside of the college’s cosmetology building were filled. Kirk Franklin, a popular Black gospel artist, was blasting from the speakers and laughter filled the room as those affected by the fires received hairstyles ranging from box braids to lineups and retwists. In addition to free hair services, student and alumni volunteers from the college’s cosmetology department offered free nail and facial services.
“All of us are struggling, and one thing about our hair is it’s going to take some time, and that’s one thing I don’t have, time and capacity,” said Jada Tarvin-Abu-Bekr, 24, a social worker who was receiving braids.
The energy in the room was not what one might expect from people who just lost everything. (“I’m having more fun doing it for free than when I normally get paid!” said Davon Parker, 33, a stylist who traveled from San Bernardino to staff the event.) But stylists and clients alike shared that community-organized support like the Dena Strong hair event left them feeling blessed and rejuvenated in spite of the tragedy.
“It’s been a long week, right?” Jonathan Gonzalez said. “So being able to get a cut before I go back into work, get a facial, see people that have experienced what I’ve experienced is really everything for me.”
“In a time of crisis, it’s really easy to focus only on the basic needs, things like food and shelter, but an aspect of emotional recovery is just as vital,” said Nicole Dezrea Jenkins, a visiting assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University. “The salon is offering a unique kind of support. It is restoring confidence and joy for people who have experienced so much.”
Jonathan Gonzalez, 33, was getting a haircut when he spoke to The Times. On Jan. 7, he had been working on the Palisades fire as an engineer with the L.A. County Public Works. By the next day, he’d lost 11 properties and an aunt to the Eaton fire.
“It’s been a long week, right? So being able to get a cut before I go back into work, get a facial, see people that have experienced what I’ve experienced is really everything for me,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to kind of get my mind off everything.”
Kamerin Harrell, who lost her house in the Eaton fire, kisses her daughter, Kassidy, as she waits to have her hair styled.
As the second-oldest sibling and eldest brother, Ifeanyi Ezieme, 27, said he has been very action-oriented in helping his family recuperate in the aftermath of his home burning.
“This is the first day since everything that I’m like, ‘All right, let me take care of myself for real,’” he said.
After both of her parents’ Altadena homes were destroyed in the Eaton fire and multiple other family members were displaced, salon owner Jazmyn Hobdy was searching for ways she could help affected Angelenos like herself. Then one of her former classmates reached out to her about hosting a free hair event at her Glendale salon in collaboration with Cécred.
Hairstylists and barbers from across L.A. are offering free hair services and products to victims of the wildfires.
“Right now, working is actually the one thing that feels normal,” said Hobdy, 32, whose family has lived in Altadena since the 1970s. Her parents are currently staying with her at her home in the Valley. “It’s the one thing that is actually bringing me peace. I really just love doing hair, and I feel like [the event] just made sense.”
Roughly 35 people attended the Monday event at Extended Beauty Bar, where Hobdy and her team of stylists did an array of services, including wash and blow-drys, haircuts and trims, silk presses and hair extensions. Greeters warmly welcomed clients as they arrived for their appointments. Feel-good music played over the speakers, while staff passed out drinks (mimosas, coffee, tea and water) and pastries donated by Porto’s Bakery & Cafe, and each guest received a goodie bag filled with hair-care products.
“It’s not just that their house burned down,” said Hobdy. “There’s so many things to do right now. People are overwhelmed with what to do with all this information. Everyone is so thankful, but it’s hard to even sit and read stuff. Like what do you do next? So I wanted to just bring people out of their reality and kind of just give them that ‘me time.’” She plans to host another free hair event in February and March.
For Kya Bilal, a celebrity hairstylist whose family home was also destroyed in the Eaton fire, doing other people’s hair during their time of need felt therapeutic.
“I just honestly feel like so many people have been blessing me that there was a point where I’m like, ‘I can’t just sit around and be sad.’ I felt compelled to do something more,” said Bilal, who also works at Extended Beauty Bar. She fled Altadena — where she’d lived since she was a teenager — with her mother, 3-year-old daughter, stepfather, brother and two pets to Inglewood.
“I can’t really give much right now but my creativity,” she said, adding that she cried several times during the event as she connected with other victims, some of whom she knew. “With your hair, when you look good, you feel good, so I’ve been doing that for myself. I’ve been getting up, doing my makeup and curling my hair, and I know how it’s helping me to get through, so I just felt like it would help other women.”
Although some hair events were one-offs, other hair salons are offering services for an extended amount of time for fire victims. For example, BraidHouse, a beauty supply and braiding salon in North Hollywood, has been giving out complimentary wigs and doing free protective hairstyling such as box braids. BraidHouse is also offering displaced hair braiders a free space — there’s typically a fee for stylists — to do hair at the salon.
Owner Brittney Ogike said these complimentary services will continue as long as there is a need. People can make ongoing appointments via direct message on Instagram.
Black barbershops and hair salons have always been more than a place to simply get your hair done. However, their significance during times of tragedy is increased in a tight-knit community like Altadena.
For Eugene Leo Draine Mahmoud, 45, the Dena Strong event provided a respite from a week of grueling conversations with his insurance agency and FEMA — the latter of which was simultaneously operating a disaster relief fund in the PCC parking lot. The event was also an exercise in learning how to receive care.
“There’s a difference between the energy across the street and in here,” said Mahmoud, who attended the event with his wife and two kids. “There’s a recognition that things take time, but there’s a different conversation in here about people’s lives.”
Wyle, who spent 11 seasons on ER, returns to the hospital in The Pitt. Now in Season 2, the HBO series has earned praise for its depiction of the medical field. Originally broadcast April 21, 2025.
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After years of avoiding the ER, Noah Wyle feels ‘right at home’ in ‘The Pitt’
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From left: Noah Wyle plays Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the senior attending physician, and Fiona Dourif plays Dr. Cassie McKay, a third-year resident, in a fictional Pittsburgh emergency department in the HBO Max series The Pitt.
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The first five minutes of the new season of The Pitt instantly capture the state of medicine in the mid-2020s: a hectic emergency department waiting room; a sign warning that aggressive behavior will not be tolerated; a memorial plaque for victims of a mass shooting; and a patient with large Ziploc bags filled to the brink with various supplements and homeopathic remedies.
Scenes from the new installment feel almost too recognizable to many doctors.
The return of the critically acclaimed medical drama streaming on HBO Max offers viewers a surprisingly realistic view of how doctors practice medicine in an age of political division, institutional mistrust and the corporatization of health care.
Each season covers one day in the kinetic, understaffed emergency department of a fictional Pittsburgh hospital, with each episode spanning a single hour of a 15-hour shift. That means there’s no time for romantic plots or far-fetched storylines that typically dominate medical dramas.
Instead, the fast-paced show takes viewers into the real world of the ER, complete with a firehose of medical jargon and the day-to-day struggles of those on the frontlines of the American health care system. It’s a microcosm of medicine — and of a fragmented United States.
Many doctors and health professionals praised season one of the series, and ER docs even invited the show’s star Noah Wyle to their annual conference in September.
So what do doctors think of the new season? As a medical student myself, I appreciated the dig at the “July effect” — the long-held belief that the quality of care decreases in July when newbie doctors start residency — rebranded “first week in July syndrome” by one of the characters.
That insider wink sets the tone for a season that Dr. Alok Patel, a pediatrician at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, says is on point. Patel, who co-hosts the show’s companion podcast, watched the first nine episodes of the new installment and spoke to NPR about his first impressions.
To me, as a medical student, the first few scenes of the new season are pretty striking, and they resemble what modern-day emergency medicine looks and sounds like. From your point of view, how accurate is it?
I’ll say off the bat, when it comes to capturing the full essence of practicing health care — the highs, the lows and the frustrations — The Pitt is by far the most medically accurate show that I think has ever been created. And I’m not the only one to share that opinion. I hear that a lot from my colleagues.
OK, but is every shift really that chaotic?
I mean, obviously, it’s television. And I know a lot of ER doctors who watch the show and are like, “Hey, it’s really good, but not every shift is that crazy.” I’m like, “Come on, relax. It’s TV. You’ve got to take a little bit of liberties.”
As in its last season, The Pitt sheds light on the real — sometimes boring — bureaucratic burdens doctors deal with that often get in the way of good medicine. How does that resonate with real doctors?
There are so many topics that affect patient care that are not glorified. And so The Pitt did this really artful job of inserting these topics with the right characters and the right relatable scenarios. I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s a pretty relatable issue in season two with medical bills.
Right. Insurance seems to take center stage at times this season — almost as a character itself — which seems apt for this moment when many Americans are facing a sharp rise in costs. But these mundane — yet heartbreaking — moments don’t usually make their way into medical dramas, right?
I guarantee when people see this, they’re going to nod their head because they know someone who has been affected by a huge hospital bill.
If you’re going to tell a story about an emergency department that is being led by these compassionate health care workers doing everything they can for patients, you’ve got to make sure you insert all of health care into it.
As the characters juggle multiple patients each hour, a familiar motif returns: medical providers grappling with some heavy burdens outside of work.
Yeah, the reality is that if you’re working a busy shift and you have things happening in your personal life, the line between personal life and professional life gets blurred and people have moments.
The Pitt highlights that and it shows that doctors are real people. Nurses are actual human beings. And sometimes things happen, and it spills out into the workplace. It’s time we take a step back and not only recognize it, but also appreciate what people are dealing with.
2025 was another tough year for doctors. Many had to continue to battle misinformation while simultaneously practicing medicine. How does medical misinformation fit into season two?
I wouldn’t say it’s just mistrust of medicine. I mean that theme definitely shows up in The Pitt, but people are also just confused. They don’t know where to get their information from. They don’t know who to trust. They don’t know what the right decision is.
There’s one specific scene in season two that, again, no spoilers here, but involves somebody getting their information from social media. And that again is a very real theme.
In recent years, physical and verbal abuse of healthcare workers has risen, fueling mental health struggles among providers. The Pitt was praised for diving into this reality. Does it return this season?
The new season of The Pitt still has some of that tension between patients and health care professionals — and sometimes it’s completely projected or misdirected. People are frustrated, they get pissed off when they can’t see a doctor in time and they may act out.
The characters who get physically attacked in The Pitt just brush it off. That whole concept of having to suppress this aggression and then the frustration that there’s not enough protection for health care workers, that’s a very real issue.
A new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, joins the cast this season. Sepideh Moafi plays her, and she works closely with the veteran attending physician, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle. What are your — and Robby’s — first impressions of her?
Right off the bat in the first episode, people get to meet this brilliant firecracker. Dr. Al-Hashimi, versus Dr. Robby, almost represents two generations of attending physicians. They’re almost on two sides of this coin, and there’s a little bit of clashing.
Sepideh Moafi, fourth from left, as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, the new attending physician, huddles with her team around a patient in a fictional Pittsburgh teaching hospital in the HBO Max series The Pitt.
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Part of that clash is her clear-eyed take on artificial intelligence and its role in medicine. And she thinks AI can help doctors document what’s happening with patients — also called charting — right?
Yep, Dr. Al-Hashimi is an advocate for AI tools in the ER because, I swear to God, they make health care workers’ lives more efficient. They make things such as charting faster, which is a theme that shows up in season two.
But then Dr. Robby gives a very interesting rebuttal to the widespread use of AI. The worry is that if we put AI tools everywhere, then all of a sudden, the financial arm of health care would say, “Cool, now you can double how many patients you see. We will not give you any more resources, but with these AI tools, you can generate more money for the system.”
The new installment also continues to touch on the growing corporatization of medicine. In season one we saw how Dr. Robby and his staff were being pushed to see more patients.
Yes, it really helps the audience understand the kind of stressors that people are dealing with while they’re just trying to take care of patients.
In the first season, when Dr. Robby kind of had that back and forth with the hospital administrator, doctors were immediately won over because that is such a big point of frustration — such a massive barrier.
There are so many more themes explored this season. What else should viewers look forward to?
I’m really excited for viewers to dive into the character development. It’s so reflective of how it really goes in residency. So much happens between your first year and second year of residency — not only in terms of your medical skill, but also in terms of your development as a person.
I think what’s also really fascinating is that The Pitt has life lessons buried in every episode. Sometimes you catch it immediately, sometimes it’s at the end, sometimes you catch it when you watch it again.
But it represents so much of humanity because humanity doesn’t get put on hold when you get sick — you just go to the hospital with your full self. And so every episode — every patient scenario — there is a lesson to learn.
Michal Ruprecht is a Stanford Global Health Media Fellow and a fourth-year medical student.
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