Partner SeriesJune 25, 2026

Diamond Ford on Redefining Senior Beauty Care, Elevating Wellness for Older Adults, and Building a New Industry Standard

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As the founder of Don’t Touch My Hair by Hollywood, Diamond Ford is working to transform how the beauty industry serves older adults by positioning Senior Beauty Care™ as a recognized specialty focused on dignity, wellness, and meaningful connection. Drawing on nearly a decade of experience working within senior living communities, she is expanding her impact through innovative initiatives like Stories in Motion™, which combines beauty services with music, storytelling, and creative expression to enhance quality of life for seniors. By developing specialized training programs, building partnerships across healthcare, education, and the arts, and advocating for higher standards of care, Diamond is creating a future where beauty services play a vital role in supporting healthy aging, emotional well-being, and human connection nationwide.

Diamond, congratulations on approaching the 10-year anniversary of Don’t Touch My Hair by Hollywood. As you look ahead to this next chapter, what excites you most about the vision you’re building for the future of senior beauty care?
What excites me most about the vision I’m building for senior beauty care is introducing it to the beauty industry as a true specialty.

There are many different paths someone can pursue in the beauty profession, yet very little attention has been given to serving older adults as a specialized area of practice. After spending the last decade working in senior living communities, I’ve seen firsthand that this population has unique needs that require specialized knowledge, training, and a different approach to service.

I’m excited about bringing awareness of Senior Beauty Care™ to beauty students, licensed professionals, and industry leaders who may never have considered this as a career path. For experienced professionals, it also creates an opportunity to continue doing meaningful work while serving a population that truly values the care and connection beauty professionals provide.

Most importantly, I’m excited to bring Senior Beauty Care™ to the forefront of the beauty industry because older adults deserve access to the same level of excellence, professionalism, and luxury that anyone else would expect from a salon experience. My hope is that we can elevate the conversation around aging, beauty, and wellness while creating more opportunities for professionals to make a meaningful impact through their work.

Can you tell us more about Stories in Motion and how combining beauty services with music, movement, and storytelling can enhance the lives of seniors?
Stories in Motion™ is an initiative that we are currently building through DTMH by Hollywood® to explore the connection between beauty, the arts, memory, and overall well-being among older adults.

The idea grew out of what we’ve witnessed inside our salons over the past decade. A beauty appointment often becomes much more than a service. A familiar song sparks a memory. A conversation about a hairstyle turns into a story about a first date, a wedding, or a meaningful chapter in someone’s life. We’ve seen firsthand how beauty experiences can create moments of connection, joy, and self-expression.

As we began exploring these experiences more deeply, we became interested in the growing field of NeuroArts, which examines how arts and aesthetic experiences can positively influence health, cognition, emotional well-being, and quality of life. Emerging research has highlighted the impact that music, movement, storytelling, visual arts, and other creative experiences can have on older adults, including individuals living with dementia.

Through Stories in Motion™, we are building partnerships with arts and cultural organizations to bring programs centered around storytelling, music, movement, visual arts, and creative expression into senior living communities. Our vision is to create enriching experiences that engage residents socially, emotionally, and creatively while encouraging meaningful interactions with caregivers, families, and community members.

Music is particularly important to our approach. Research has shown that musical memories can often remain accessible even when other forms of memory become impaired, which is one reason music has become such an important tool in dementia care. That research reinforces something we’ve long believed: the environment matters. The music we play, the conversations we encourage, the sensory experience we create, and even the power of touch all contribute to a person’s overall sense of well-being.

As Stories in Motion™ continues to evolve, we’re excited not only to bring these experiences into communities, but also to contribute to the growing conversation and research surrounding NeuroArts, sensory experiences, creativity, and healthy aging. Our hope is to help create experiences that bring joy, connection, dignity, and purpose to older adults both inside and outside of the salon.

We believe the salon can be more than a place where someone receives a service—it can be a place where joy, memory, creativity, and connection come to life.

You’re working to establish Senior Beauty Care™ as a recognized specialty within the beauty industry. What gaps have you identified in traditional cosmetology training, and how are you addressing them?
Most cosmetology programs do an excellent job teaching technical skills, but very little time is dedicated to preparing professionals to work specifically with older adults.

Over the past decade, we’ve learned that serving seniors requires much more than knowing how to cut, color, or style hair. It requires an understanding of the physical, emotional, and cognitive changes that can come with aging, as well as the ability to adapt services and communication styles to meet clients where they are.

What makes our experience unique is that our clientele consists almost entirely of older adults living in senior communities. Because of that, we’ve had the opportunity to learn from thousands of interactions across independent living, assisted living, and memory care settings. One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is that a person’s level of care doesn’t tell the whole story. Every resident is on their own journey, and every client requires an individualized approach.

A stylist may be working with someone experiencing mobility challenges, memory loss, anxiety, hearing loss, medication-related hair and scalp changes, or the emotional adjustment that comes with transitioning into a senior living community. They may also be supporting someone who has seen the same stylist for 30 or 40 years and is now navigating the experience of building trust with someone new.

To address these gaps, we’re documenting the real-world experiences we’ve gained over the years and using them to develop specialized training for beauty professionals. In addition to safety protocols, communication techniques, dementia awareness, and age-related hair and scalp education, we’re creating training around what we call The Journey of Care™.

The Journey of Care™ focuses not only on understanding and supporting the older adult, but also on helping the beauty professional navigate the emotional realities of the work. When you serve the same residents week after week, year after year, you become part of their lives. You celebrate milestones with them, witness health changes, support families through transitions, and sometimes experience loss. It can be incredibly rewarding work, but it can also be emotionally demanding.

We believe beauty professionals deserve support and preparation for that aspect of the role as well. By addressing both the technical and human side of serving older adults, our goal is to help create confident, compassionate professionals who are equipped to provide exceptional care while also maintaining their own emotional well-being.

Ultimately, Senior Beauty Care™ is about recognizing that serving older adults is a specialized skill set. It deserves dedicated training, professional standards, and greater recognition within the beauty industry.

What have you learned over the past decade serving older adults that has shaped your approach to beauty, dignity, and wellness?
One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that beauty never stops mattering.

Regardless of age, people want to feel confident, attractive, respected, and recognized as individuals. A fresh hairstyle is rarely just about appearance. It can restore confidence, encourage social engagement, and help someone reconnect with a sense of self.

I’ve also learned that dignity is found in the small details. Taking the time to listen, remembering someone’s preferences, respecting their routines, and creating moments of joy can have a tremendous impact.

Serving older adults has taught me that wellness is about more than physical health. It’s also about connection, purpose, identity, and human interaction. I’ve watched residents light up because someone remembered their favorite style, their favorite song, or simply took the time to sit and listen to their story.

That understanding has shaped every aspect of how we design our services and experiences. We don’t simply provide beauty services; we create opportunities for connection, confidence, and care. When you spend a decade serving older adults, you quickly learn that what people value most is not just how you make them look, but how you make them feel.

You describe your model as a blueprint that could be adopted nationwide. What would success look like by 2030, and what kinds of partnerships are you hoping to build to help make that vision a reality?
By 2030, I hope we’ve helped spark a meaningful conversation around Senior Beauty Care™ and the important role beauty professionals can play in supporting the well-being, dignity, and quality of life of older adults.

Right now, my focus is on continuing to build that foundation here in Metro Atlanta by partnering with senior living communities that are committed to delivering exceptional resident experiences. We want to help establish a higher standard for what beauty and wellness services can look like within senior living and demonstrate the impact that specialized care can have on residents, families, and community culture.

A major part of that vision is building partnerships with cosmetology schools and educational institutions to introduce students to Senior Beauty Care™ through specialized curriculum and training developed by DTMH by Hollywood®. Our goal is to help bridge the gap between traditional cosmetology education and the real-world skills needed to serve aging adults with confidence, compassion, and professionalism.

We also hope to partner with senior living operators, healthcare professionals, researchers, beauty brands, and arts and cultural organizations that share a commitment to improving the lives of older adults. Through initiatives like Stories in Motion™, we’re particularly interested in collaborations that explore the connections between creativity, sensory experiences, beauty, wellness, and healthy aging.

Ultimately, our vision is not simply to expand a company. It is to help establish higher standards of care, create meaningful career opportunities for beauty professionals, and elevate the role beauty services can play in supporting dignity, connection, and quality of life as people age.

If by 2030 we’ve helped create greater awareness around Senior Beauty Care™, sparked meaningful conversations around NeuroArts and healthy aging, and inspired people to explore new ways of supporting connection, wellness, and quality of life as we age, I would consider that a tremendous success.

Success isn’t just about growth. It’s about contributing to a future where people can live longer, healthier, more connected lives. If we’ve helped advance that conversation, strengthened partnerships throughout Metro Atlanta and beyond, and demonstrated the value of dignity, care, and human connection, then I believe we’ve made a meaningful contribution, not only to our industry, but to society as a whole.

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