Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Lamb.
Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi my name is Sarah Lamb, I’m 36 year old Texan native, single mom to two children Olivia (10) and Legacy (2.5). I have been doing hair and make up professionally at Salon Mink for over 13 years. About six years ago, my sister asked me to be apart of a woman’s empowerment retreat called Aphrodites Escape, where we travel all over the world empowering women to reclaim their Devine feminine energy and harness the power of being a woman in this world, while creating a deep rooted sisterhood along the way. Last June my oldest daughter Olivia got diagnosed with DIPG and incurable form of brain cancer, the doctors gave her a year to live and suggested we take it day by day and make the good days great and on the bad days rest. As you can imagine our entire world changed. Being a single parent and a hairstylist in this world, I didn’t have a savings to rely on, but growing up in this area my community came together with the help from my sister to raise enough money to give me six months off with my girls to get through radiation and her make a wish trip and truly focus on Liv. Olivia was such a light, her story touched so many people all over the world, her light was magnetic and she fought with her head and heart held high. From a young age she was spiritually tuned in, a force to be reckoned with. She wasn’t afraid to die, she said she never wanted to be old, being an adult “looked stressful” she said lol Her last award at school was the superhero award, she was a true friend to everyone and she actually became a hero to so many including myself. We danced, sang, cuddled, explored TikTok our way through cancer, we made everyday count. In December right after Christmas we got the unbearable news that the cancer had spread to every level in her brain and the one trial medication wasn’t working. January we through her a huge “prom” birthday that my sister organized, with so many local businesses supporting and pitching in it was an amazing night that she was fighting through so much pain and she just fought through it with a smile. Lighting up the entire space. February came and they suggested Hospice care, a though I couldn’t wrap my head around. I had become great friends with a foundation and fellow mom Melissa Hill with the Archer Foundation in Dallas and she reminded me it’s one day at a time, one moment at a time. If you can make it through the moments they add up to a day…eventually. Olivia became unable to walk, eat properly, smile, and I couldn’t stop working this time because the foundation helped had maxed out and we raised money months ago. I was working at the salon 10 hours and coming home to a sick child and a very active toddler. Olivia’s last request were no more pokes, no more hospitals, she just wanted her family and to be surrounded by love. So that’s exactly what we did we stopped everything and for four days my mom, my sisters, my nieces and nephew stayed the night with us. All in one room, telling stories, playing music, saying our last goodbye. No doctors no nurses no hospice just love. The most tragically beautiful thing you could ever witnessed. When she passed she came to me as a red bird and twerk for me, just as she had jokingly promised to me a few months before so I know she was ok. And since then she shows up undeniably everywhere. The thing that has kept me going is knowing the impact she had on this world in just ten short years. She loved I was myself, I colored her hair in kindger, we were always “extra” covered in glitter make up and trendy outfits she loved I wasn’t a “normal” mom because according to her…her and her brother weren’t normal lol I realized quickly we can choose how we move and live with grief. There’s not denying that little girl was my world, but her light and energy got me through a really dark place, so why would I go back when she left? She’s not truly gone, why disappoint her? I want her to see I will never let her legacy be wasted, I will turn those ten years of light into a legacy of light. Now I may be too type be to start an amazing foundation for childhood cancer, but luckily their are bad ass moms all over who took that route, but me? I wanna show and inspire others that we can get through anything. A part of me died with my daughter that I’ll never get back, and I’m grateful for that. She awakened a part of me I didn’t even know was possible to exist, a part of me that can spread her light to masses. To let people everywhere know living for them doesn’t mean we moved on or are over it but just like anything we get to decide how to move forward and what we can learn from this lesson? Olivia taught me life is too short to wait, to be sad, to quit or give up, so I decided to live so loud and intentionally that she can be so proud of me in heaven telling everyone “that’s my mommy, she did it” . So I still take everyday moment by moment, one thing at a time, and in my chair I get to tell her stories and spread her light while giving women confidence and strength to overcome anything thrown at them when they walk out those doors. I choose to use the platform my sister has given me to reach even more women and people around the world to Live like Liv, to spread her story and her light, and how grateful and purposeful this magazine interview has now become because it’s just another way to spread the good and make sure my daughters death was for the most beautiful reason.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There are good days and bad, in only four months out but having the family and co workers that truly hold so much space for me have kept me focus. But I heard emotions come for 90 seconds and when I feel them, I give them their time, thank them for the reminder and lessons learned and know that grief is just love where no where to go, and genuinely after this…nothing is impossible to figure out
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I love your color. Color is some of my favorite ways to express creativity. I know I wanted to be some sort of artist when I was younger, but I couldn’t traditionally paint or draw. I found me as self expression. Now I think cosmetology school teacher told me that I actually had a real deep hair and I should really look into that route instead of Make Up. Well, I’ve got to love to make up alive, I wasn’t always able to do it the way I had originally wanted with the retreat that my sister and I do that she’s a professional photographer and I’m able to do her make up we started finding houses that could handle a thing so that even if you attended multiple states, your pictures would always be different recently. She’s asked me to start speaking at the events as well, which has healed and ignited deep inside of me that I always be grateful for I’m the hairstylist after all the rules to break them. Some of my coworkers have to look away while I’m mixing color, but there’s always a mess to my madness!
How do you define success?
I think it’s true that people love what you do never a real day in your life while my 30 six-year-old body feels the labor every time I work I do, my heart never feels heavy, I never wake up and wish I was doing something else. So I’m successful because I get to do something that I love and that I’m good at, it’s a struggle the world with my sister, I get to hang out with amazing woman and learn from them, vibration, frequency, and the village that when I needed them, they show up to be able to take off six months of work because so and supported you completely on the day, your daughter services, and having every single person show up so that they could get my family ready for the worst day of our lives that type of success is one of the kind
Contact Info:
- Instagram: HairbySlam
