A local salon is commemorating Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a special raffle and remembrance wall. On the Clip Side partnering with The Wig Room is raffling off a basket full of gift certificates, hair and skin products; and Brown Shoe Fit has donated a Vera Bradley purse and blanket also to be given away to the winner.
Tickets for the raffle are $5 each. Susan Green of The Wig Room says the salon wanted to do something for the local Mia Ware Foundation: “I started The Wig Room back in January of this year. Along with that comes a lot of people who come through my door that are breast cancer survivors or going through breast cancer treatment. What we decided to do was to do a fundraiser for the Mia Ware Foundation. We decided that we would do a drawing, and with that drawing, the person can buy a pink ribbon and they can write on it in memory of someone or someone who survived [breast cancer]. Their name also goes into the basket. The tickets are $5 apiece. That way we are raising money for the Mia Ware Foundation, which is local and that’s great. Actually, they haven’t been able to do anything for two years because of COVID, so this has been something that has sparked them, too.”
Green says her business, the Wig Room, helps provide women fighting hair loss for things like breast cancer, alopecia, and other disorders find a proper fitting wig in an intimate, salon style atmosphere at On the Clip Side. Green says she got the idea while helping a friend deal with their hair loss due to breast cancer treatment: “What I do is help with thinning hair or hair loss from treatment. It doesn’t have to be breast cancer. It can be any kind of treatment that they’ve done or if they have something like alopecia or they are just thinning. I’ve even had some people who have had hair loss due to COVID. They have wound up coming in and getting toppers. That’s another thing that I do is toppers, which clips into your hair near the top of your head because a lot of people thin on the top.”
Green says that wigs have come a long way over the last several years and look more and more like natural hair than wigs from years past. She says that with hair loss comes certain emotions and her special wig room helps provide both privacy and positivity during fitting sessions: “I go behind a closed door with a pulled curtain. Then, I have another curtain that is over the windows, so it’s private. No one can get in there. No one can see. A lot of people feel vulnerable and feel uncomfortable when they have no hair or thinning hair. Not that men don’t feel this way, but women especially [do] because it’s kind of who we are or at least it seems to be. Losing their hair is really hard for them. I try to make it very uplifting, nice and bright, and encouraging. I have a lot of quotes on the wall. I want it to be an uplifting experience for them. I want them leaving [feeling] better than when they walked in. Most of the cases, I would say almost 100% of the cases, that’s what happens. That feels really good to me. It feeds my soul knowing I’ve helped someone.”
If you would like to purchase a ticket in person and leave a pink ribbon on the commemorative wall, visit On the Clip Side in person at 307 East Court Street. If you would rather purchase a ticket but not come in, you can do so by calling 217-243-2547 or you can Venmo Green directly your ticket order by sending money on the Venmo app to Susan-Green-123.