A Breast Cancer Survivor Tale
The Spring of 2015 was the year that the trajectory of life as I knew it would change. It was the year that I learned that I had breast cancer.
At this stage in my life, when I was diagnosed, there was no history of cancer that I or my family was aware of on either of my parent’s side. I underwent genetic testing and learned that my disease was not genetic in nature but environmental, so the fact that not only did I have cancer but that I would need to undergo a treatment plan of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, which would take me on a one year journey to eradicate my cancer left me blindsided.
I learned that I would lose all of my hair because of chemotherapy. I wanted to maintain my dignity and sense of self during what was a very difficult time in my life, so I knew that I wanted to wear a wig, but what I soon learned is that these medical spaces that support individuals with chemotherapy hair loss did not have wigs that looked like my tightly coiled hair because these spaces only sold straight-haired wigs. I lost the ability to be reimbursed through my health insurance plan just because I could not find a wig that looked like my lost hair.
Through research, my sister and co-founder, Pamela, and I learned this was a systemic issue in medical spaces across this country. I became passionate about turning lemons into lemonade and disrupting the disparity that I saw in the medical space by launching a business that would make culturally sensitive wigs available at cancer center hospitals and medical hair loss salons across the U.S. We’ve extended our passion for disrupting this disparity by also providing wigs direct to consumers through our online store.
We started as a grassroots business, and we are growing.. We will continue to expand our wig styles, colors, and sizes as the business grows, all the while staying true to our commitment to being a resource for Black women with medical or non-medical hair loss who are looking for wigs that are coily curly. Thank you for taking this journey with us.
