Norwich - Stephanie Brown slumped in the office chair at Bethsaida Community Inc. Friday morning, her hair straight and unkempt.

A half hour later, hair curled, makeup applied, the 16-year-old Norwich girl was ready for her close-up with professional photographer Jay Harman.

"I feel like I'm getting married!" Brown said.

That's how the staff at Bethsaida's Homeless Women Deserve Treatment program wanted women to feel Friday during the first Glamour Day at the program's new home in the former St. Joseph Convent on Cliff Street.

Staff invited women clients, residents at Bethsaida's Katie Blair House next door and women who frequent the St. Vincent de Paul Place soup kitchen to come and be pampered for a day. Ten women accepted the offer Friday morning and received framed portraits of the results to give to family members and friends for the holidays.

Brown and her mother learned about the program at the soup kitchen, and while her mother declined, Stephanie, a 10th-grader at Norwich Free Academy, was delighted she allowed her to go. Her hair now in curls and set atop her head, Brown said she loved the photos.

For most of the women, Glamour Day was a rare treat. Some said they haven't had a nice photo of themselves taken in 20 years or more.

Amanda Calkins hadn't had a haircut in more than two years. Stylist Brenda Stone, who graduated from the former New London Beauty Academy 25 years ago, slowly worked the comb through Calkins' hair, removing kinks and snarls and apologizing for the pulling. Within minutes, Calkins' red hair draped straight and shiny across her shoulders. Stone curled the tips inward as a finishing touch.

Stone couldn't offer more than quick trims, combings and curling in the carpeted office setting. She invited the women to come to her Hair Thang salon on Sachem Street for hair cuts "on me." By early afternoon, stylist Helena DePina of Helena's Hair Palace on Route 2 in Preston arrived to help out.

Stone said she had been looking for a volunteer opportunity at Thanksgiving time and learned of Glamour Day from Bethsaida Program Coordinator Donie Jarmon.

Lora Burgess had to be coaxed by her Katie Blair House roommates to come. "I don't like to stand out," she said, admitting she was nervous.

Bethsaida Program Assistant Lakisha Lee-Olson offered "gentle touch" hand and feet massages to the sounds of waves crashing against the shore. She instructed Calkins to relax and asked if she would like spearmint oil on her feet.

"I don't let anybody touch my feet, but that felt so good," Calkins said afterward.

In her small office, Bethsaida Program Manager Eileen Normandin used the skills from her former profession as a makeup artist to get the women ready for professional photographer Jay Harman, who set up shop in the former convent chapel.

With a homey Christmas scene of a decorated tree, fireplace and stockings as the backdrop, Harman first positioned the women on a stool between the tree and the fireplace. He folded hands on laps turned heads, fluffed hair and asked for smiles.

Some subjects gave him skeptical looks when he ordered them to stand sideways to the camera, hands on hips and turn heads and necks toward the camera. But more than one woman chose that as her top photo selection afterward.

"I tell brides all the time, 'You won't be comfortable, but you'll look great,'" said Harman, who opened J.R Photography in Ledyard six months ago.

c.bessette@theday.com