This is Kayley Olsson.

In August 2017, she shared a touching encounter with a teen client who had come in with severely matted hair.

At the time, Olsson was 20 years old and working

as a student hairdresser in Waterloo, Iowa.

On August 8th, a teenager walked into the salon. What ensued was an interaction that Olsson described as one of her "hardest experiences with [a] client" — and one that

would go on to touch thousands of people's hearts.

Olsson wrote on Facebook:

"Today I had one of the hardest experiences with my client who I am keeping

anonymous, I had a 16 year girl come in with who has been dealing with severe depression for a few years now. She got to the point where she felt

so down and so worthless she couldn't even brush her hair, she told me she only got up to use the restroom."

The post continued:

"She starts back at school in a few weeks but she has her school pictures today. When she walked in she told us just cut it all

off I can't deal with the pain of combing it out, she called herself worthless for it. It honestly broke my heart and we tried everything we could to keep

this child's hair for her!"

Olsson knew she had to do something to help her client — and wow, did her work pay off.

"After being here 8 hours yesterday and 5 hours today we finally made this beautiful girl smile and feel like she IS worth something!" Olsson wrote.

Where her hair had been tangled and matted when she arrived, it was perfectly cut and curled by the time she was ready to leave.

The teen's hair was unrecognizable by the time she left — but, more importantly, she felt transformed, too.

"Her last words to me was 'I will actually smile for my

schools pictures today, you made me feel like me again,'" Olsson wrote.

To date, the post has been shared over 78,000 times and has accrued 11,000 comments.

Her story clearly resonated with people across the world: strangers from places as far as

Bolivia and Argentina left comments on her post. 

Strangers flooded Olsson's Facebook post with kind, supportive, and thankful notes.

Others commended her for making the teenager "smile again."

"People don't realize the importance of people in your industry. Taking care of the outside works wonders on the inside!!!!!" wrote one appreciative Facebook user.

In fact, one woman was so touched by the story that she sent Olsson a bouquet of flowers — all the way from Arizona.

"Beauty deserves beauty," she wrote in

the accompanying note. "What a great example you are to all of us."

The encounter attracted a lot of attention in the media; outlets such as CBS News, the BBC, and Huffington Post all covered it.

Olsson

was even featured on an episode of The Doctors!

"This has been so inspirational for me. I can't thank everyone enough who has pushed me to do my best and saw the potential in me I couldn't see myself!

I love you all and this is only the beginning," Kayley wrote on Facebook in September, about a month after the now-famous haircut. "My goal is really make a

stand for Mental Health and for Parents, Teacher, Friends, and Family to really get aware of world we truly live!"

For Olsson, though, the experience was far bigger than herself, as noted in her initial viral post:

"At the end of the day I want this to be a lesson

to people. MENTAL HEALTH is a thing, it effects people all around the world and of all ages! PARENTS take it serious don't just push your kids off and tell

them to get over something they legitimately can't. A CHILD should NEVER feel so worthless to not even want to brush their hair."