Cancer is a scary word.
It's an even scarier fight.
Learn how to ease your clients through the changes their body will go through by understanding that there is a way to find...

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June 2011. Just after her birthday, a woman, an avid cyclist and LIVESTRONG Leader decided, after the FDA said that mammograms before the age of 40 weren't helpful in finding cancer early, to get a free mammogram on her way back to the office at a Women's Health Fair at the corporate park where her office was located. She had no reason to suspect anything other than some results that could be used as a baseline for when she turned 40, 3 years later.
July 11, 2011, she got a call from a hospital representative. She not only had one form of breast cancer, but she had two forms of cancer in the same breast. One month later, she had a double mastectomy. In October, she shaved her long, blonde hair, with the help of her two children.

Her life, and her children's lives, was never the same. That woman was me, Rica Mendes, owner of Yaffa Beauty by Rica.

Since then, I walked away from corporate life, became a hairdresser, makeup and nail artist and never looked back. But... I knew I had to give back. Still a LIVESTRONG Leader, and now an outspoken cancer survivor and advocate, I am looking to improve other cancer fighter's journeys by educating salon professionals in how they can help.

We, cosmetologists, barbers, nail technicians and estheticians are empowered with some of the greatest tools to help their clients through the most jarring and harrowing times of their lives. As they say, "We touch more hearts than heads." This is absolutely true. But given our extensive training, we already have what it takes to guide our clients, and friends, through the realities of treatment. Cancer changes everything - that is inevitable. And while we can't fix everything, we aren't helpless, either.

I have developed a unique training program to guide your entire staff - from reception to stylists to assistants - to allow you to not only maintain your relationship with your clients, which, from a business perspective is crucial, but to make things a little easier for your clients, and hopefully keep them feeling a little more like themselves.

Contact me at yaffabeautybyrica@gmail.com or call 203-842-8388 to book a class at your salon.

A percentage of all fees will be donated to LIVESTRONG in your name to help continue cancer survivorship programs in your community and around the world.