<\/p>\n
For many women, losing their hair to chemotherapy is not just a physical side effect\u2014it can feel like losing a piece of who they are.<\/p>\n
Deborah A. McDowell has spent more than a decade helping women hold onto that part of themselves. She\u2019s the founder of Oncology Aesthetics & Wellness (OAW), formerly known as Hair With A Cause, built around a process the organization calls CPR\u2014cut, preserve, reattach\u2014that lets patients preserve their own hair before starting chemotherapy and wear it again through recovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Over the years, OAW has grown beyond hair to include skin care, medical tattooing, sound baths, yoga and a peer community for women navigating a cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n
CURE spoke with McDowell about how OAW got its start, why she describes hair loss during cancer treatment as an identity issue rather than a vanity one, and what she wants every newly diagnosed woman to know before treatment begins.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Back in 2010, I owned a hair extension studio, and we primarily worked with industry and talent clients. A young woman came in who wanted to stop wearing her wig. She was done with treatment, and her hair had grown back to about half an inch. She wanted to know if we could help her with extensions.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t sure it would work\u2014would it damage her hair?\u2014so I did a lot of research and built a relationship with her. She trusted me to remove the wig and start the extension process, which took about 14 to 16 hours to install. It worked, and I stayed with her through her whole hair recovery journey, which took about a year.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a business concept yet\u2014it was the relationship. Two years later, her sister-in-law was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and I helped her, too. It was a slow growth: helping one person led to a referral, which led to a second person, which led to a vision, and then a business.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>We coined the phrase \u2018it\u2019s not vanity, it\u2019s your identity\u2019 after a conversation with a young client who was devastated about losing or even cutting her hair. Her mom kept reassuring her that it would grow back. That\u2019s when it clicked for me: it was never about the hair itself. It\u2019s about what a woman sees when she looks in the mirror. Once we finalize how we style our hair, we feel good about who we are and what we\u2019re presenting to the world. It\u2019s part of who we are, and it\u2019s a major part of a woman\u2019s recovery, because even if she doesn\u2019t feel her best, she doesn\u2019t want to look in the mirror and see a sick person. Not having that \u2018crown\u2019 affects self-esteem, which affects recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBefore treatment, most women are focused on their image, so we walk them through their options\u2014what we offer at OAW, what cold-capping companies offer, and how we can preserve or customize a wig for them.<\/p>\n During treatment, we help with whatever comes up\u2014mouth sores, upset stomach, or if they\u2019re dealing with neuropathy and need mittens or something for their hands and feet.<\/p>\n After treatment, when patients are ready to move on, that\u2019s when we do the reattachment: turning preserved hair into extension strands, or, if they\u2019d rather not do that, turning their wig into a hair hat or halo they can wear while their own hair grows back.<\/p>\n We also offer wellness classes, retreats with other nonprofits, and peer-to-peer connections with other women who\u2019ve gone through the same type of cancer or treatment. It\u2019s personal\u2014we slow down and walk with someone through every stage, until they don\u2019t need us anymore and can move on with their life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>We help women avoid going down a rabbit hole on Google trying to figure out what to do and when. What\u2019s helpful is that we create community: Women whose door cancer knocked on, uninvited, can connect with someone who has already walked through that same door. They know what to expect and have someone to talk to about the things they don\u2019t have the words to ask their doctor. Women don\u2019t have to rely only on their medical team\u2014they can turn to peers who\u2019ve been through the same experience and share what helped them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat she can maintain her hair esteem while going through chemotherapy. Your image doesn\u2019t have to change because you\u2019re not feeling well\u2014you don\u2019t have to sacrifice your hair or wear a wig if you want to keep your own.<\/p>\n Hair With A Cause is the heartbeat of what we do, and OAW is the engine\u2014the broader set of services we now offer. Our foundation\u2019s overarching goal is to become a national oncology hair-access foundation, so women don\u2019t feel like they have to settle for something they\u2019re not happy with because they can\u2019t afford a higher-quality wig.<\/p>\n Through the foundation, we raise money for a program that helps cover a woman\u2019s first fitting, or her hair preservation into a wig. So whether someone comes in for a customized wig or is turning her own hair into a wig during treatment, we want her to know there are several ways we can help\u2014including through the foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n This interview originally appeared on CURE and has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many women, losing their hair to chemotherapy is no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Can you talk about the distinction between vanity and identity when it comes to hair loss during cancer?<\/h2>\n
How do those conversations continue during and after treatment?<\/h2>\n
Cancer can make a woman feel like her life is spinning out of control. How does this work help patients regain a sense of control?<\/h2>\n
For a woman who\u2019s newly diagnosed and doesn\u2019t know where to start, what\u2019s the one thing you\u2019d want her to know?<\/h2>\n