CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — When Rebecca Davis returned to her Crystal River beauty salon following Hurricane Helene, she says she couldn’t even look. The salon that took months of hard work that was a labor of love was just a shell of its former self.

Rebecca opened Rebecca’s Beauty Salon inside of a modest strip mall on US-19 in 2022 with the help of her husband, family, and close friends. While the salon made it through the 2023 storm season, Hurricane Helene brought in inches of water, ruining everything she had inside.

What You Need To Know

  • Rebecca's Beauty Salon flooded in Hurricane Helene

  • Salon was closed for 43 days as family, clients helped with repairs

  • Owner provides free makeovers for disabled adults during biannual events 

Within hours of the water receding, Rebecca’s clients and friends started showing up to help.

“I’m just like throw it away, don’t tell me what it is,” Rebecca said, referencing the painful day.

As a lifelong resident of the small town, Rebecca enlisted in the army when she was just 17. After serving as a field medic, she came back to Citrus County to work at a nursing home. Rebecca says while she loved the work, she got too attached to her patients so she decided to go to beauty school. After working at a few local salons, she was ready to open her own space in the summer of 2022.

So when Rebecca saw her salon with standing water and sitting in pieces, the military mindset of how to overcome and persevere kicked in.

“There was no…. ‘I’m going to fail. I’m going to give up,’” she said. “It was more like… I don’t know how I’m going to do this or pay for this, but giving up was just not an option.”

While rebuilding, Rebecca refused to shut her doors to those who needed her most. About a week after the hurricane, she received a call from the mom of a longtime client of hers who has special needs saying that her daughter had homecoming and didn’t want anyone else to touch her hair.

Rebecca didn’t hesitate to help and gave the 16-year-old client, named Brooke, the full salon treatment right there in the parking lot.

“She did perfect like she always does,” Brooke said. “I felt like I was the homecoming queen in the middle of the dance circle!”

Years ago, Brooke started coming to Rebecca for haircuts. Then, through a work-study program that pairs special needs students with employers, Brooke got to start helping as Rebecca’s salon assistant of sorts.

“When she’s having a bad day and doesn’t know how to process, she comes here and sits for hours,” Rebecca explained. “She may not even say anything to me. But. I can’t have my door closed for somebody like her. It’s just not going to happen.”

It was Brooke and others like her that rely on Rebecca that fueled her to get the doors back open.

“Everybody needs somebody. So if I can be that somebody, then that’s what I was put here for,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca credits her husband, family, and loyal group of customers and friends with helping her get back open.

Rebecca’s Beauty Salon formally reopened in early November after 43 days of repairs.