Dianne Austin had hair loss and a breast cancer diagnosis. When she was unable to locate a medical wig that matched her own hair type for her hair loss, things became worse. For the sake of future women who might one day find themselves in her situation, she was determined to change the story.
She said to WCVB “I was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, breast cancer, and I learned through my oncologist that I would lose all of my hair. So it was really shocking for me took me for a loop.”
Austin underwent chemotherapy after his operation. She remembered how she was undergoing treatments at the time, and her daughter was scheduled to graduate from high school. In order to ensure that her daughter’s schooling would not be hampered by her illness, Austin said, she wished to appear as much like herself as possible.
She didn’t think the medical hair loss wig that her doctor recommended and the one that was reimbursed by insurance looked like her hair.
“When I walked into like three different spaces and didn’t see anything that reflected my hair preferences, it just felt like it made me feel almost invisible” She said.
In an effort to locate a medical hair loss wig that would complete her, Austin reached out to clinics around the country, but her search proved fruitless even though she discovered that other patients had made comparable demands.
The businesswoman ultimately succeeded in recreating a wig she had discovered at a beauty supply store, but she was compelled to forgo the privacy that a hospital could provide and was unable to use her health insurance.
“I remember just being so frustrated and angry and I was like, ‘Well, Diane, stop being angry. Do something about it.’ And that’s how the business was born.”
In 2019, she and her sister, Pamela Shaddock, established Coils to Locs. Before starting the business, she spent almost four years studying and analysing the market, she said to the news organisation. After finding a manufacturer, the wigs had to pass a test administered by a wig fitter.
“She took the wig and she started stretching it and turning it inside out and she said, this is really good quality. I remember having a sigh of relief,” Austin recounted to CBS News.
Her internet store sells a range of black wigs with textures, from ringlets to coily curls, that can be purchased at cancer treatment facilities around the country, like Dana Farber Cancer Institute, using prescriptions and health insurance.
Currently available in 16 hospitals, Coils to Locs is becoming more and more well-liked across the country. The sisters appeared on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” as well.
“I think what people don’t recognize is that hair loss and wanting a wig because of hair loss is not, you know, someone who’s being vain and wants a product for, you know, vanity purposes. It’s it’s a lifeline. It allows you sort of a sense of control; a sense of self helps you to maintain your dignity during what is a very difficult time,” Austin remarked.
She said that a lot of people had complimented the creative approach taken in solving this problem. Recently, she and her sister have added braids and, soon, locs to their hairline.
