Wig Warriors Comes to Red Bank

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By Judy O’Gorman Alvarez

RED BANK – When Michele Lawson’s stepmother battled cancer she remembers the anxiety over the unknown effects her treatment would have on her body, both inside and out, including the potential loss of her hair.

Now Lawson, a hair stylist and salon owner, has launched Wig Warriors: The Maureen S. Konopko Foundation in honor of her stepmother who sadly passed away from the disease. On Nov. 18 friends, supporters and the Red Bank community kicked off the nonprofit at her salon Hair & Co. on White Street.

Wig Warriors was founded to help patients deal with the often traumatic, but sometimes overlooked side effects of cancer treatments. Chemotherapy drugs are powerful medications that attack rapidly growing cancer cells and unfortunately also attack other rapidly growing cells in the body, including those in the hair roots. Physicians deal with the nausea and potential for infections arising from the treatment, but don’t offer much support for hair loss, a non life-threatening side effect.

“We help women navigate through the cosmetic side effects they will endure while going through treatment,” Lawson said. Wig Warriors offers each patient a free wig plus free wig services during treatment, along with a consultation to set up a plan of action to help deal with the difficulties clients may face during their treatment.

Wig Warriors, housed at Hair & Co. salon in Red Bank, provides wigs, hair coverings and beauty tips at no cost to women undergoing cancer treatment. Photo courtesy Wig Warriors

In a private room in Lawson’s salon, stocked with donated wigs, scarfs, head wraps and head coverings, Lawson meets with women undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. In this safe haven she discusses what they may experience, guides them through the stages of hair loss, and explains the options available to them, including pre-emptive hair cutting and shaving, as well as fitting, styling and caring for wigs.

Lawson doesn’t just address the obvious hair loss from the head. She can also help with remedies for thinning and loss of eyebrows and eyelashes, including eyeliners, brow liners, powders and stencils, among other options.

“When you look your best, you feel better,” says Lawson, who has volunteered with the American Cancer Society’s Look Good, Feel Better program that teaches beauty techniques to people with cancer. “I started volunteering when our stepmom was suffering through her diagnosis in 2001 and I needed to help in some way and I started fitting and styling wigs for cancer patients.”

Now much of Lawson’s family is involved, including her sons Luke, Kyle and Peter who sit on the foundation’s board of directors.

On any given day Lawson could be shaving a client’s head, discussing the best wig or head scarf options for another woman or coloring another client’s hair that has started to grow back. “I helped one client transition into a wig and start her hair loss journey from the difficult task of shaving her head to discussing wig care and head wraps and coverings,” Lawson said.

“It’s a tough road navigating through the side effects of chemotherapy,” she said, “but in the end the hair does grows back.”