ROCKLAND — After raising four children and becoming a grandmother to nine children, empty nester JoAnna Galkowski from Rockland hadn’t given a thought to her appearance in a very long time. “I was just tired,” she said. “When I looked in the mirror I felt even more tired.”

Her 15-year-old granddaughter, Hana, snapped a surreptitious photo of Galkowski one morning over breakfast. Little did she know what Hana had in mind.

Hana sent in a heartfelt essay about her grandmother, along with her photo, to Skin Klinic’s Makeover Contest. Nearly 140 women around the state entered the contest with photos and essays attached, which the entire staff of Skin Klinic read and they decided as a team, the makeover package should go to Galkowski.

The essay read in part:

“I know that you guys are probably getting plenty of those heart-wrenching stories about why their friend or family member should win this makeover, but I just want to say that I love my grandmother more then I could ever express. She's a very hard working woman, and is always helping other people, and trying to make everyone happy, except her. I think that she's a very beautiful person in and out, but she's aging. I think that she should win this makeover because it would revive her. I want her to just have a day to herself and not have to worry about anything. She should also win because she's the most loving, caring person. In my short life, she has shown me so much wisdom and given me a lot strength. She has done so much for me, and now it’s time for me to do something for her. After having four kids, she forgot how to do stuff for herself once in a while. She has always been a very stylish woman, but it’s not the 90s anymore. Show her how to show off her amazing complexion, and curves.”

“I was driving home from work and got the phone call that I’d been the one to win the contest,” Galkowski said. “I didn’t know what to think. I was very excited, but I wasn’t sure what was involved. You read stuff about celebrities getting these kinds of services, but I was also a little afraid, wondering, what was I getting into?”

This is the first time we have ever done a contest like this,” said Susan Kelly, a registered nurse, aesthetician and owner of Skin Klinic & Day Spa in Rockland. “We have women call us all the time to do a variety of services, but we wanted to put together the whole package for one candidate. We also wanted someone who was deserving.”

The package was around $6,000 worth of services. “It takes some trust for someone to turn herself over to us and allow us to determine what she needs,” said Kelly. “Especially since she hadn’t even heard of most of the procedures we had in mind for her.” In this day and age, more and more people are leaning toward less invasive treatments that can give dramatic results.

Galkowski started off with a photofacial, which is a  light-based skin resurfacing treatment used to treat brown spots, broken capillaries and to boost collagen. “It wasn’t too painful, but it did feel like a snap each time it touched my face,” she said. 

Right away, she noticed brown spots that had been on her face for years had disappeared. “Those spots had always bugged me for the longest time,” she admitted.

Next, she had a series of dermal fillers to plump out the hollows under her eyes, the contours of her face, which had lost volume due to the aging process, and to smooth out the marionette lines by her mouth. When the fillers had settled in her face, the staff then used Botox, a drug to cosmetically remove wrinkles on her forehead and the frown lines above her eyes.

“I never really looked into Botox before, because honestly, I didn’t really know it was available in Maine,” Galkowski said. Next, the staff applied dramatic eyelash extensions to her eyes, which will last about a month. Getting to the end of her makeover, Galkowski had her hair professionally cut, colored and styled with highlights. Finally, the staff applied a professional makeup application to Galkowski.

The entire makeover process took three months, just in time for summer.

“It doesn’t usually take that long, but we wanted do procedures in stages, so that her skin had time to adjust to each phase,” said Kelly.

The difference between her before-and-after photos shows a woman who looks years younger, fresher and in her words, “no longer tired.” 

After so many years of being a mother and grandmother, putting all of her energy into others, Galkowski said she never realized how little she gave to herself. She said that the services she received have changed the way she views investing in herself.

“I feel a lot of gratitude,” Galkowski said. “They made me feel like I have a new lease on life.”

“I think it’s given me a lot more confidence,” she said. “When we look good, we feel good. It’s really changed my whole outlook. I just have a little more bounce in my step.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com