By Janette Leaf-Davis

She was applying eye liner for a beautiful young girl paralyzed from the waist up in an automobile accident five months ago when she noticed a tear tumbling down the girl's cheek, said Agatha St. Bure, practical nurse.

“I asked her what was wrong,” said St. Bure. After a pause she said, “It makes me sad to thing that I'm probably going to be imposing on people the rest of my life to put my makeup on.”

This is a true story and happens all the time to young and old, to those with mild or severe restrictions. The physical side of physical disability is so noticeable that even professional care givers often overlook the “psycho-social” side, says Robert Lepp, director of Psycho-Social Services at Courage Center in Golden Valley, MN a treatment center for the handicapped.

“That's too bad,” says Lepp, “because it is psycho-social treatment that often enables physical treatment. The mental side is very powerful in promoting overall well-being.”

Janette Leaf-Davis advocates “permanent cosmetics” for handicapped women unable to apply makeup by themselves. With it they look at all times as if their makeup has just been applied.

Leaf-Davis, whose “naturally you” office is in Edina, MN applies “permanent” eye liner, lip liner, and eye brows by “dermapigmentation.” Sterile dyes are applied on e millimeter beneath the skin. The process has been used by Hollywood stars for decades.

Courage Center teaches people who are handicapped to do as much as they can for themselves and to let others do the rest. To treat the emotional side of handicaps, says Lepp, Courage Center and other treatment facilities provide support groups, life enrichment activities, sports and recreation, and vocational activities for those with acquired (not congenital) disability.

Greater independence yields greater happiness for people who are handicapped.

Says Leaf-Davis about permanent cosmetics; “When a woman who is handicapped looks fresh, alert and animated she's just happier.”

Irene Kaber of Las Vegas testifies to the efficacy of permanent eye liner as a mood enhancer. She suffers from Parkinson's Disease. Friends have always admired her beautiful eyes, so when Leaf-Davis made it possible for them to be beautiful all the time, despite her ailment she was ecstatic.

Other who have been helped have had multiple lip scars, MS, the blind, those with alopecia, those who have lost hair (brows and lashes) due to chemotherapy, and many others.

Permanent make-up, that doesn't smear, is also used by people with arthritis, poor eyesight, allergies, and eyes that tear easily, says Leaf-Davis.

-Minneapolis Times

The Journal for Professional and Personal Enrichment