When Cancer Treatments Cause Hair Loss, Heights Stylist Steps In

Cynnairia Caver’s hair started thinning when she was a high school freshman.

Barely a teenager, she became an expert at styling her hair to camouflage the bad spots and ease her insecurity. The experience inspired her to take her knack for taming strands to the professional level — she went to cosmetology school and started working in a hair salon.

She was struck by how many women had hair-loss problems of their own, and how exposed they felt going to crowded salons that provided little privacy. Eventually she decided to start her own business in Cleveland Heights where she could help such women in a less public setting.

, which specializes in extensions, wigs and other types of hair replacement, is now in its fourth year. Caver, 28, felt compelled to give back to the community. She started by donating a wig to a cancer patient who couldn’t afford one and styling it for free.

“It felt kind of wrong to charge her for it,” said Caver, a alum. "Something like that should be given to her."

Soon she started buying wigs and giving them away to clients with cancer, alopecia and other conditions.

“If everybody was taking from the world, what would be left?” she explained. “It’s about giving back, and I’m extremely blessed in so many ways. I have beautiful kids, I was able to buy a home at an early age … I feel as if I owe the world something.”

She’s bought more than 60 wigs and has donated hundreds of hours making sure the style and cut are just right for her clients.

Privacy is her priority. She spaces out appointments so that clients don’t run into each other.

“Everybody doesn’t need to see what’s underneath your hair,” she said.

Caver held up her phone to show a photo of a breast cancer patient wearing one of her styled wigs. The woman looks at the camera over one shoulder and poses as confidently as a model, showing off her new auburn wig.

“That right there – that does it,” Caver said, smiling. “She was so happy.”

When Terry, the woman in the photo, first walked into Caver’s salon, she was bald from cancer treatments and wasn’t sure how to style her own wigs. After she got her new locks, Terry felt empowered, uplifted, optimistic.

“I forgot that I was a patient of cancer,” said Terry, who asked that her last name not be used. "I felt like just a regular customer. It made me feel as though I was a part of her family rather than just someone she was servicing.”

Now Caver has help from the American Cancer Society, which designated Caver’s shop as one of its area “wig banks.”

Molly McDermott, health initiatives representative for the local chapter, dropped off human-hair wigs when Caver's salon became official in October.

“She’s been paying it forward way before she became an American Cancer Society wig bank,” McDermott said. “I’ve had calls come in and people say, ‘Oh she’s a wig bank now?’ and they tell stories. They say she’s great, God bless her. I get a lot of calls like that. She’s a rare find, and we’re very lucky we connected with her.”

Caver works 60 to 70 hours a week, despite being a single mom with two sons, 10 and 4, and acting as treasurer of the PTA. But she doesn’t complain about being tired or busy.

“If you can get their hair together, they have the biggest smile on ever … Nothing tops it. That’s the greatest feeling in the world.”