Sarah Walters has aspired to make a difference since she was a child.
After her stepfather died suddenly five months after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma more than a decade ago, the henna artist — who began practicing and eventually mastering her skill in 2008 — was determined to use her artistic ability to enrich the lives of others.
When she lost her stepfather, she says, “it was a sad period that only reaffirmed my resolve to find a way to help in whatever manner I could.”
In 2010, two years after she began practicing her craft, she had an epiphany. When her mother asked her to make a crown for a cancer-stricken friend, Walters leaped at the chance, creating a one-of-a-kind crown illustration and bringing it to life on her client’s head.
“I knew I wanted to make [the crowns] accessible to anyone who had lost their hair after chemo,” she adds, adding that she doesn’t charge patients.
While Walters’ work with patients fluctuates from once a month to once a week, she says there hasn’t been a single moment that jumps out to her since starting this new career.
“Every single client who has come to me for a crown has impacted me,” she says. “Spending time with folks who have so much courage and strength is always motivating.”
“Everyone is lovely, and my crowns merely enhance the beauty that is already there.” A henna crown gives you the same rush of confidence you get when you leave a salon with a new hairstyle. People are ecstatic to have a choice other than wigs or caps, and it may be liberating.”