by Jess McCuan / photos by Matt Rose

In VERVE’s very first issue, we promised our readers: no lipstick stories, no tips on how to get thinner thighs or abs. You might think a makeover story would fall into that category, the kind of standard women’s magazine article that puts too much emphasis on outward appearances. But this is our Image Issue, after all, so we decided to branch out. And at VERVE, we think a makeover can be as much about feeling good as looking good.

Still, the VERVE makeover has been an interesting experiment. We reached out to Mainstay, a Hendersonville women’s shelter that offers counseling, court advocacy and other services to women in abusive relationships, and asked them to pick three women who might be interested  in an afternoon of pampering and styling. Everyone involved volunteered their time and services—including Hendersonville’s The Sanctuary, which provided outfits and accessories; Danielle Shook and Tokisha Ingram, who did haircuts and styling; and Catherine May and Jennifer Green, who did makeup. We weren’t looking for any particular woman—just someone who had been through one of Mainstay’s programs and was back on her feet. Perhaps she was starting a new job and wanted a new look, or was bogged down with he old look and needed some sort of lift. Whoever she was, she had to be willing to sit for a few hours while various professional stylists jazzed her up however they saw fit.

On the following pages, you’ll find more details about Valerie Robinson and Sabrina Aikens, who agreed to play along. Interestingly, one of the women Mainstay selected opted out, for very good reasons. “The makeover has to be within,” she said, noting that she’d rather get a massage than a makeup job or a haircut. At VERVE, we couldn’t agree more (and we like massages, too!). A makeover should be less about glamour or trends and more about sprucing up your self-image. In this case, we got lucky: both women in our experiment seemed genuinely thrilled to see themselves transformed in the mirror. They felt good, they looked stunning and we hope the day gave them some sass and confidence—a bit more verve than they might have had before.

Sabrina Aikens

Age: 32
Lives in: Edneyville
Occupation: medical records specialist at Community Family Practice of Asheville

How does Sabrina Aikens describe her sense of personal style? “I don’t have one,” she says bluntly. “It’s always been jeans and a T-shirt or sweats and a T-shirt, sadly. Now, mostly it’s scrubs.” The mother of three is always on the go, commuting to Asheville for work or toting her eight-year-old son Aaron and twin daughters Ariel and Allison to Cub Scouts meetings and gymnastics.

Mainstay helped Aikens find work and an apartment after she moved to Hendersonville from Florence, South Carolina. Last year, she went back to Mainstay to volunteer.

Valerie Robinson

Age: 36
Lives in: Hendersonville
Occupation: full-time student at Blue Ridge Community College

“Sometimes I feel like my life is like something you would see on TV,” says Valerie Robinson, who moved back to her hometown of Hendersonville in December 2008 to care for her father, who died of cancer shortly after. Then, her younger sister Crystal was diagnosed with lymphoma (she’s now in remission), and Valerie’s life started falling apart, first losing her hospital job and then her apartment. Mainstay helped her land a new apartment, and now she’s learning Spanish and American Sign Language.

Robinson says she gets her sense of style from her mother Thomasine. “She’s 64 but she has this legacy of scarves and sterling jewelry—really unique stuff,” Robinson says.