A South Florida hair stylist goes viral for her skills at helping her clients untangle their problems — while detangling their hair. Her story shines in this 7Spotlight with Heather Walker. At Love, 518 salon in Hollywood, not only do clients leave their appointments with a new hairstyle, they also leave with a huge weight off their shoulders, and their heads. Hadassa Felix: “So initially, all this was matted. And it’s been matted for five years.” Salon owner Hadassa Felix has had many jobs in the past, but hair has always been her passion. Hadassa Felix: “I have a military background, law enforcement background, I did massage therapy, I did fashion design. I was always doing hair as a side job, but it would always call me back to hair.” Her specialty is detangling some of the most matted hair you’ve ever seen. She started a few years ago while training to become a hair stylist. Hadassa Felix: “A client came in from South Africa, whose hair was matted and my employer was like, ‘Well, we can’t do that.’ I’m like, ‘I think I can, let me just try it.'” Hadassa Felix: “So I’m detangling piece by piece.” When Hadassa opened her own salon, she started posting her detangling videos. They went viral, and clients started pouring in from around the world. Hadassa Felix: “A lot of people from Canada, Hawaii, Australia and Italy. For a person not to comb their hair, I mean, you have to be going through something really bad that it’s the last thing that you’re worrying about.” Many of Hadassa’s clients come to her suffering from depression or burnout. Taking care of their hair — or themselves — is no longer a priority. Hadassa Felix: “I get a lot of strong people, the strong friend, the strong mom, the strong dad, the person that’s here for everybody else and don’t know how to ask for help because no one’s checking on them.” Detangling matted hair can take days. So Hadassa wants her salon to be a comfortable and safe space. Hadassa Felix: “Some people just need me to be quiet and pray for them silently in my mind. Some people need me to hug them. Some people need me to say ‘It’s okay.’ I’m not saying I’m a therapist, but it’s, like, I call myself a hair-apist, because I’m going through the process of detangling not only their hair, but also their lives as well.” It has taken days to slowly work out all the tangles on Hadassa’s client from New York. Hadassa Felix: “After this, I’m going to wash her hair, do a treatment, cut her ends and stye it for her.” Her client didn’t want to show her face, but she said taking care of others for years left her with no energy to focus on herself. Client: “And you don’t realize the rut you get into when you stop taking care of yourself. And then one day after the next, this happened, just happened and believe it or not, when your hair gets like that, you feel the weight of your hair is the weight of your burdens.” As Hadassa works to untangle her matted hair, the woman feels the burden being lifted. Client: “And it’s the best experience. Because besides the detangling, it just gives you a sense of what you have to do internally.” After four days, the client’s hair is transformed Hadassa Felix: “I feel like I get to help people, yeah, I’m still always shocked by the fact that I get to do this. Like, I love it, it’s so cool.” Hadassa’s joy comes from helping people work out the knots in their hair — and their lives. Heather Walker, 7News. If you know of a person, place or group that you think we should highlight, email us at [email protected]. ...read more read less