Makeup That's Changing the Homeless: Shirley Raines / Founder of Beauty 2 The Streetz

Direct Talk

Today on Direct Talk is Shirley Raines.

She has found a unique way of helping the growing
number of homeless people in the United States.

Good morning you guys, happy Saturday.

We have makeup

we have barbers

we have braiders

so we'll be going over styles
and what you guys need.

People go by her first name Shirley.

She provides makeup
and hair styling services for free.

The homeless, including a growing number of women,

are left without hope for the future.

That's until they meet Shirley.

I think the services that we provide
not only nourish their body,

but also some of the services we provide,
help them with their spirit.

Some have been able to get out of their situation
and become self-supporting through her mission.

Shirley Raines tells us about
her organization with her volunteers.

She also explains what kind of help is needed.

Makeup That's Changing the Homeless

Homeless numbers are
rapidly growing in the United States.

It's estimated that 580,000 people are without homes.

Los Angeles County has been one of the
largest numbers of people living on the streets.

The numbers there reached 67,000 in 2020...

Almost a third are women.

Skid Row has the largest concentration
of homeless people in Los Angeles.

Homelessness is definitely on a rise.

I see it now as a problem
that could have been solved a long time ago.

That can still be solved now

and no one wants to do that.

No one cares about the livelihood of
the people out here, especially the women.

Skid Row was initially built for men,

so a lot of the shelters
the way they're established,

they cost too much money
to change the way they are.

So they only have a small portion
that they can set aside for women.

That puts more women on the street

when the women are the ones
at the end of the day and who need to be housed.

We look at a system out here
and the streets are such a hard place to live.

I think that's creating
a lot of the mental illness.

They fell on hard times they ended up
in the street and nobody helped them.

I think part of the mental illness
we see out here is absolutely preventable.

Absolutely preventable.

There are close to 9,000 homeless people
living on Skid Row.

Every Saturday morning at 7am,
they form a line

and they see the person
who they have been waiting for...

Good morning you guys, happy Saturday.

Bring the tickets.

I'll be your bodyguard Ms. Shirley.

You'll be my bodyguard?

Wow thank you my love I appreciate you.

When Shirley shows up

she lightens up the mood.

Volunteers serve food on this day of the week.

The morning becomes an event.

Over 400 meals are prepared.

This is Shirley's set-up.

She has her unique approach
in reaching out to the homeless.

She created a non-profit organization

called "Beauty 2 The Streetz."

It provides hair styling and makeup services.

So that's all brushes.

Then we got this donation from Obagi.

I guess how you say Medical...

Shirley uses social network
to ask for donations.

Cosmetic products gather in bundles.

Shampoo and haircut tables are set up.

Hair coloring and makeup are provided.

"Beauty 2 The Streetz" does pretty much what our
name sounds like we bring beauty into the streets

And I gotta say beauty is
in the eye of the beholder.

So whatever people behold is beautiful.

But when I came out here, they wanted hair color,

they wanted makeup, they want an earring.

So those are the things we focus on eyelashes,

you know, doing makeovers pampering.

These people aren't beggars,

these are people who are down on their luck.

And I think the services that we provide

not only nourish their body,

but also some of the services we provide,
help them with their spirit.

And that's the hair and that's the makeup.
And that's the eyelashes.

And you see them feel good when they leave,
you see, I'm happy.

This individual came to see Shirley,

believing that makeup
has the power to change her life.

She has been homeless for several years.

She first met Shirley
during a very dark phase in her life.

All right thank you girl for doing this.
I got to get my little...

Shirley begins her magic.

I really do like you eyebrows.
You really got a good shape.

The toffee concealer to do shape her eyebrows.

And I told my boyfriend
she's not your woman anymore.

She's mine now..so that's how I went.
That's how it is.

But he said he fell in love with me.
But I guess not.

Oh how sweet.

It's weird.

It's not weird. It's sweet.

This woman during the beginning was quiet.

But, she gradually opened up to Shirley.

I like this eyelash on you..it looks.

That's a look.
I think that's so super pretty.

Whatcha think?

What are you going to do today?

I'm going to go and
bug the hell out of my boyfriend.

I'm going to be a nuisance

a beautiful one.

No I'm just saying
I'm going to be with my boyfriend.

It's Saturday.

Thank you guys though. I appreciate it.

Many are faced with difficulties.

But they regain their sense of self
through Shirley's makeup.

It's giving them strength
to pick themselves up again.

I don't touch their story
unless they want to tell it

because I realize that they deserve
to keep something to themselves.

But a lot of times when they sit in those chairs,
they do open up.

You know what it's like,
it's like the barber chair,

you know, you go to people go to the barber,
it's like they say your barber

your hairstylist is your therapist.

I think it's just a place
where people can be vulnerable.

Some of them never look in the mirror
and they walk away happy.

So that should tell you,
it's not just about how they look,

it's also about someone
taking the time to wash their hair,

or to call them by their real name,

or someone who doesn't care how they smell and

still wants to be around them
for 30 or 40 minutes to do their hair.

So I think a lot of the care that we give,

I don't know if it's the hair
that makes them feel special,

the makeup or the touch and the fact that
someone is paying attention to them.

Shirley has also been homeless when she was 20.

She lost her 2-year-old son in an accident
while she was going through her struggles.

The death of her beloved son

drove Shirley to the limit

and she started experiencing mental illness.

I know what it feels like to lose things
because you don't have your life together.

I feel like I lost the ultimate thing
because I don't have my life together.

I lost my son.

The guilt I carried for
maybe if I have my life together, and

maybe if I wasn't homeless,
I have my own backyard.

My son would have some place to play.

I think for 30 years,

I was looking to get rid of the pain.

Instead of channeling the pain
and having a purpose for it.

Now I'm out in the streets,
and I still wake up crying over my son,

I still feel guilty.
I still have all those emotions.

Shirley spent many days staying away from others.

However, one day
she decided to make a change for herself.

I couldn't control a lot of things in life.
You know,

I couldn't control the fact that my son had died,

I couldn't control any of the trauma
I had been through,

I felt like I couldn't control those factors.

But one thing I could control was
how long my eyelashes were,

I can control how high I wanted my arch
and my eyebrows to be,

I could control the color of my eyeshadow.

It did and it did and
it gave me a purpose for my pain.

Shirley raised a family, found a job
and escaped from homelessness.

But her emotional pain remained.

So, one of her family members had a suggestion.

It involved joining a church group
to volunteer and help the homeless.

She once again returned to a place
she desperately wanted to move out of

Her motivation to get more involved increased
as she encountered other homeless people.

She wanted to give hope to the homeless and

makeup was something
that could transform individuals

to get people back on their feet

just like she was able to get back up.

Since 2017, Shirley began
supporting the homeless through make-overs.

All y'all gonna keep asking me for makeup
and they started calling me the makeup lady.

So I went home,
I got all my own makeup at home,

I asked friends to send money
and I started purchasing makeup.

They were getting their hair washed

and they were, I was feeding them

and they were getting makeup.

You can play make-believe with me,

let's, let's do your hair.

Let's make-believe
you're not in this traumatic situation.

Let's make-believe that,
you know, you weren't violated last night,

let's make-believe
you didn't sleep with rats last night, you know.

And those little moments of make-believe
make you feel good.

And then you start feeling like
you want make-believe to be real,

like you want to be Pinocchio,
you want to be real

And I think that that's
what kind of happens out here.

It starts off as a game of make-believe.

You know and so I know that pain and I know

some of the pain that
some of these people out here feel.

Even though I don't know their story,
I know that connecting pain.

And so I think that's what made me
relatable to them. And then for me.

In 2019, Shirley launched her
non-profit organization, Beauty 2 The Streetz.

Shirley used social media to
seek for donations of relief supplies.

She occasionally uploads videos of
how she does makeup to spread the word.

I took to social media.
I was just doing it a Shirley Raines.

I started posting videos,

and I started getting a lot of negative talk.

Like how?

Oh, people thought I was doing it for clout.

Oh, look at her. She's, um,
she's exploiting the homeless,

she's putting them on video.
She just wants attention.

And I was like, well no, because what I saw here
was a community that really needed help.

And I went and I tried to do the best I could,
but I can only do so much.

So what I did was I want to ask for help.

But I know enough to know that

before I can ask you for help
I have to show you the problem.

So I took the social media to show the problem.

People started seeing me
people started trusting me

little by little
people started sharing my page with others.

In 2021, Shirley launched a crowdfunding campaign

raising 20,000 dollars.

She often posts her activity
to her 4 million viewers.

In 2021, Shirley's efforts were recognized.

She was named CNN Hero of the Year.

Today she works with 25 volunteers.

Individuals come from various backgrounds,

including hair stylists,
makeup artists among others.

Some escaped homelessness

through Shirley's efforts.

Some people slept on the street,
some people some women got raped.

I've seen somebody dropped in front of me
while being out on the streets.

She has helped me through

a lot of traumatic experience
ever since I've been down here.

That means self confidence and your self esteem.

Before I had my makeover
I really didn't care how.

Then my makeover lifted me out of my depression

where I was able to go handled things
that I needed to begin with.

All my important dates that I had to go to,

I handle them because after my makeup
I was like I'm ready for the world.

People always say,
Where do I see Beauty 2 The Streets?

I think the question is,
where do we see the homeless?

Because wherever the homeless are,
our Beauty 2 The Streets is going to be.

So I think the question is, where do we see
the homeless in the next five years?

And I can tell you, they're gonna be right here.

Yeah, they're gonna be right here next five years,
the homeless are gonna be right here.

Because skid row has been around a very long time,

and it's not getting better,

it's getting worse, it's getting worse.

And numbers from the pandemic, the amount of
homeless people that we're going to see,

those numbers arise from this pandemic,
and they should be rising shortly.

So we're gonna be here

because this is where
this is where the community will be.

Shirley left us with these important words.

So It says the sun will come out tomorrow
but what tomorrow? Hold on!

So I think this is I call this dear to my heart.

Because, you know,
when when my son passed away,

people love to give you
these Hallmark greeting cards

and people kept saying,
Oh, the sun will come out tomorrow.

Don't worry, the sun will come out tomorrow.

And when the sun didn't come out,
I really thought I was doing something wrong.

I really thought God didn't love me.

I thought life was punishing me.

I'm like, why am I not happy?
Why is my tomorrow sun not here?

Then I realized
there are so many tomorrow's in our future.

That the sun will come out

but what tomorrow.

It took 30 years of tomorrow's...

it took 30 years of tomorrow's
before my sun came out.

And I needed to hold on for 30 years

and I want people to hold on

and know that
if your sun does not come out tomorrow,

it will come out.

And when you give up you'll never get to see it.

You'll never get to feel the glow on your skin.

You can't give up on life.

So I try to hold this near and dear to my heart.