A STRUGGLING single mum has found a novel way of boosting her income – by opening a ‘spiritual’ hair salon in her spare room.
Stephanie, who has three kids by three different dads, lives in Knowsley, Liverpool where three out of five parents are on their own.
In Channel 5’s Spray Tan Mums: Single and Proud, Steph reveals that she plans to set up the unusual business because it would cost her more to get a traditional job.
She explains: “When I work I have to be self-employed because a single mum with three kids working full time – it costs me more money to put them in the after school club and the breakfast club.
“I just want to sort myself out now, look after myself, pay my own bills. I’m just looking to my future and that’s all I can do every day.”
The former X Factor contestant was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a singer when she fell pregnant with her oldest child Taylor, now 13.
She went on to have two more children, Mischa, eight, and Mason, five.
In a hope to support her kids she cooks up the idea of a salon with a difference, combining her passion for meditation with her skills for styling.
She can be seen cleansing her aura with lit sage as she explains “I’ve been doing the meditation and that now for over a year and I feel like I’m a different person it’s really calmed me down.
“I used to ask myself why is there always murder in my life why us there always drama and I realised that I was creating that drama in my life by reacting to it.”
Stephanie says that she is nonplussed about what others might think of her situation.
“I honestly couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about me being a single mum” she says.
“It’s no one else’s business. I don’t pay my bills with opinions.”
But aware that she does have to somehow pay her bills she sets about decorating her spare room, roping in friends to give it a makeover.
Speaking of her decision to work from home she adds: “When you’re working for other people they don’t care do they? They just want to pay you the least they possibly can to line their pockets.
“In reality it’s impossible to get a job a full time job when you’re a single mum, if you haven’t got family and friends who are going to babysit or whatever.”
After completing the refurbishment Steph is sure to cleanse the space using a feather and some incense.
She chants: “Please remove anything other than the purest, highest, divine love and light. Let any negativity leave through the door out into the universe where it will be made back into love and light.”
Cutting the ribbon and officially opening her ‘shop’ she tells her three children “This is for mummy to make lots of money.”
She proudly christens the former box room ‘Steph’s Healing Hands Salon.’
And it seems that the universe is on her side as Steph welcomes her first customer on the day of opening who she treats to a haircut as well alongside some sound healing.
Her proud mum Bernie says: “She said this year we have been through s*** but we’re going to come out the other side.”
And formerly unemployed Steph can’t wait for her business to get going.
She adds: “I look forward to getting up and going to work won’t even be work so yeah, good things coming for me and my little family, finally. There is a God! Been shouting at him for years.”
Channel 5’s Spray Tan Mums: Single & Proud airs on Thursday at 9pm.
Elsewhere Mums Make Porn viewers have questioned the point of the series after spotting a fatal flaw with the documentary.
And a mum has sparked outrage after admitting she had a favourite son and struggles to ‘force a bond’ with her youngest.