Richard Cornish is a pro at making people look and feel their best, no matter the obstacles. 

Cornish has been a hairstylist for more than three decades. Since January, he's been operating a mobile bedside salon, Restore Salon Services, out of two black travel bags for patients undergoing long-term treatment and hospital stays at Penn Medicine. 

"When you tell a person who is in the hospital that they can actually receive a haircut or a shampoo or a beard trim or something like that, it helps them to kind of change their own perspective on their own situation," Cornish said. "It kind of normalizes their experience in the hospital, it helps them keep their own identities." 

For him, helping someone look their best even when they're not feeling it is a small win in the road to recovery. 

"People who I encounter in a hospital are just so incredibly grateful to have something other than medical issues to talk about and services to receive," Cornish said. "So this work in the hospital is much more my calling, although I do love being in the salon." 

Right now, he spends two days a month at Penn Medicine, but come January, he's hoping to spend four days a month. The goal is to expand his work to as many patients as possible.

He also encourages anyone with a talent to share to consider volunteering their time, knowing that sometimes the best medicine may come from the outside in. 

"I think there is always something you can do with your talent you have, you just have to find what your passion is," Cornish said. "This is my passion. I see the magic and the power that this provides people, and so that just fills me up."