Losing your hair due to cancer treatments can be a jarring experience.
D.C. native Carolyn Keller, a two-time breast cancer survivor — first in 2004, then again in 2005 — said it’s one of the things that affects you most at the beginning of your treatment journey because, for many people, it’s the first sign that you’re physically ill.
She said a lot of us thought we were strong and healthy, “then we’re diagnosed with something that’s an invasion to us.”
Keller said emotionally and mentally it’s devastating, “you’re just not feeling yourself.”
She added, when you’re not feeling yourself, it can effect how you get up in the morning or, “Do you want to get up in the morning?”
Keller turned her diagnosis into a way to give back.
She’s the founder and chairman of the board of EBeauty Community. It supports women who are going through cancer treatments with a wig exchange program and hospital partnership program.
With her partners, a new center is opening up: the EBeauty Community Center for Cancer Support in Stevensville, Maryland, on Kent Island, on May 2.
Keller said it will promote a more hands-on approach, where women within a 30 to 40 mile radius can come in and actually try on wigs. She said it will also give it the opportunity to work with other support groups and cancer organization.
Several years after Keller’s diagnosis, her sister-in-law Laura was diagnosed with cancer. Keller said she wanted to help her by buying her a wig, only to discover that there were few wigs to be found where her sister-in-law was living in the Midwest. And they were extremely expensive — $5,000.
The women eventually found a wig that wasn’t quite as expensive, about $2,000. The wig created a small circle of giving when, nine months later, another sister-in-law on the other side of Keller’s family was diagnosed with cancer.
The wig was then donated to that relative. Keller said she decided that she wanted to create a larger circle of giving where women could give and receive free wigs and founded EBeauty Community.
Keller said it started out small in D.C. at 1350 I Street NW, where it resided for 10 years before moving part of their operation to Phoenix.
She said Sibley Memorial Hospital was one of their first partner hospitals. EBeauty Community received wigs from the hospital, and had them cleaned and refurbished by an area salon. Then, it got involved with the American Cancer Society’s Look Good Feel Better program.
Soon EBeauty Community had 40,000 wigs.
“We were completely wigged out,” Keller said. It then began partnering with Paul Mitchell Beauty Schools in Annapolis and Frederick to help with the refurbishing.
Today, EBeauty Community partners with 92 hospitals across the country and donates hundreds of wigs per year to get them into the hands of women who need them the most. It also maintains an online presence: 70% of their wigs are new and 30% are gently used.
Keller told WTOP: “Our little bit of support is not going to cure cancer, but it’s certainly going to make you at least a little bit more confident going about your day.”
EBeauty Community is looking for volunteers for its grand opening on May 2, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., at 480 Main Street, Suite 104-106 in Stevensville, Maryland.
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