BATTERED WOMEN GET A NEW (OUT)LOOK.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

NORTHRIDGE - If they had the $200 - which they don't - it certainly wouldn't be going for a makeover in a classy salon and spa.

It would be going for a roof over their heads, some clothes for their kids, and food on the table, Betty Fisher says.

That's where the priorities are for the battered women who come to hide out for a few weeks in one of the safe houses at Haven Hills, a facility for abused women in the San Fernando Valley.

When you're running scared, with little more than the clothes on your back, from an abusive husband or boyfriend, you're thinking about survival, says Fisher, executive director of Haven Hills.

You're not thinking about a facial and getting your nails done.

Which is why this Queen for a Day treatment that Janeen Vendetti and Sheila Kuale, co-owners of Secrets Salon and Spa of Northridge, are offering abused women and their kids living in shelters is so perfect.

For one special day, these women on the run are treated like Cinderella, fawned over like they're royalty - bucks up, not tapped out.

``Our women said they couldn't remember being so relaxed, and treated like this,'' Fisher said. ``They just felt so much better about themselves. It was a tremendous boost to their self-esteem.

``They talked all night about the fun they had, and how they couldn't believe that someone actually cared enough to treat them like this,'' she said.

Believe it. Vendetti, Kuale and stylist Ruben Mejorado do care that much.

Five times this year already, they've closed their successful Northridge salon and spa to paying customers so they and their staff could give battered women makeovers for free.

Help them look in that mirror and like what they see for a change. Help them get their self-esteem back.

Many of the women at Haven Hills got theirs right around Mother's Day as they were completing training programs to get them ready for the job market.

Resumes and training are important, but so is appearance, they know.

Dozens more women from the Family Violence Project and Gramercy Place Family Shelter, two programs run by Jewish Family Service, will be coming to Secrets soon to receive the same Queen for a Day treatment.

``These women work hard to get back on their feet, and sometimes they put all their energy into their children, which is great,'' said Elizabeth Charlton, director of Gramercy.

``A day like this allows them to take care of themselves, and to increase their self-esteem, which is so important,'' she said. ``They're all very excited about going.''

The woman sat in Janeen's chair, staring into the mirror like she was looking at a stranger, some movie star or something.

``I never knew I could look this good,'' she said. ``Thank you so much.''

In 20 years of marriage to an abusive husband, she could not remember one week when she wasn't covering some kind of bruise on her body, she said.

You watch women like this walk into your salon, shoulders slumped, eyes down, and a few hours later you watch them walk out head high, shoulders back.

All because you changed how they look, and that changes how they feel about themselves.

``When you look good, you feel good,'' Janeen says. ``Even if you have a good heart, people go by that first image they see. It's why so many pretty women get a shot in life.''

But it's not just the women, Ruben says. It's the kids, too.

``You don't see a lot of hope in their eyes when they walk in here with their moms, but when they're walking out, you see it,'' he said.

``These are kids who don't have a lot of trust, especially in men. When they get out of my chair and they're smiling for the first time in a long time, well, it's pretty touching.''

What she would like to see is all salons in the Valley donate a day or two a year to helping these women and their kids get back on their feet, Janeen says.

Sure it will cost them some money turning away paying customers, but the personal payoff is more than worth it.

It's a heck of a great feeling, she says - turning women on the run into Queen for a Day.