Lori Lebowitz from Long Beach has been through a lot in the past few years. While struggling to beat breast cancer, her father succumbed to esophageal cancer.
“He died two weeks after I started chemo,” Lebowitz recently recounted, fighting back tears.
During the funeral for her father, Lebowitz’s hair fell out, and in support, her husband, Keith, shaved off all of his hair. At the time, Lebowitz’s daughters, Bari Rose and Sara, were 10 and 6, and Lebowitz said she struggled to be strong for them, while she had her mastectomy, frequent cancer treatments, and reconstructive surgery.
“It was a very trying time for her,” Lebowitz’s mother, Barbara Greenberg wrote in to The Queens Courier/Makeover Contest. Briarwood resident Greenberg explained that her daughter has now reached the four-year mark since beating the disease. “I’d love her to have this makeover.”
So on Thursday, February 1, Lebowitz worked the morning shift at her job as a medical biller, and then headed to Christie & Co. Salon
Stylist Yaffa Lieberman and Colorist Fatima Nikmanesh fashioned Lebowitz’s already chopped locks into a spunky shape with a brighter red color. Joy Jeon gave Lebowitz a pedicure, and Alla Akilova painted her toenails a soft pink. Makeup artist Lisa Pietrocola applied flawless makeup intended to make Lebowitz’s tan skin “pop.”
At the end of the experience, Lebowitz glowed.
“I feel so pretty and pampered,” she gushed. “Normally, I’m at work all day, and then from 4 to 6 p.m., I run around with the girls.”
Always the caretaker, Lebowitz then thought of someone else in her family, who could also use a day to relax.
“I’d like my mother to do it,” she said thoughtfully. “I still don’t know how she dealt with everything.”
