'Not Vanity, It's Identity': The Hair Preservation Method Built for Chemo Patients

A 14-to-16-hour extension installation in 2010 became the foundation of a business that now helps chemotherapy patients keep their own hair through treatment. Deborah A. McDowell, founder of Oncology Aesthetics & Wellness (OAW), formerly Hair With A Cause, told CURE how the method works and why she frames chemo hair loss as an identity issue rather than a vanity one.

OAW's core process is called CPR—cut, preserve, reattach. Patients preserve their own hair before starting chemotherapy and wear it again during recovery.

How did OAW start?

McDowell owned a hair extension studio in 2010, working mostly with industry and talent clients. A young woman who had finished cancer treatment came in wanting to stop wearing her wig. Her hair had grown back to about half an inch, and she asked for extensions.

"I wasn't sure it would work—would it damage her hair?—so I did a lot of research and built a relationship with her," McDowell said. The installation took about 14 to 16 hours. McDowell stayed with the client through her full hair recovery, which took about a year.

"It wasn't a business concept yet—it was the relationship," she said. Two years later, the client's sister-in-law was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and McDowell helped her too. Referrals followed. "Helping one person led to a referral, which led to a second person, which led to a vision, and then a business."

Why does McDowell call hair loss an identity issue?

The phrase "it's not vanity, it's your identity" came out of a conversation with a young client devastated at the prospect of losing or cutting her hair, while her mother kept reassuring her it would grow back.

"That's when it clicked for me: it was never about the hair itself. It's about what a woman sees when she looks in the mirror," McDowell said. "Not having that 'crown' affects self-esteem, which affects recovery."

What happens before, during and after treatment?

• Before treatment: OAW walks patients through options—its own services, cold-capping companies, and wig preservation or customization.
• During treatment: the team helps with side effects such as mouth sores, upset stomach and neuropathy, including mittens and items for hands and feet.
• After treatment: OAW performs the reattachment, turning preserved hair into extension strands, or converts a wig into a hair hat or halo to wear while the patient's own hair grows back.

The organization has also expanded beyond hair into skin care, medical tattooing, sound baths, yoga, wellness classes, retreats with other nonprofits and a peer community for women navigating a cancer diagnosis.

How does the service restore control?

"We help women avoid going down a rabbit hole on Google trying to figure out what to do and when," McDowell said. "Women whose door cancer knocked on, uninvited, can connect with someone who has already walked through that same door." Peers, she noted, answer the questions patients don't have words to ask their doctors.

What should a newly diagnosed woman know?

"That she can maintain her hair esteem while going through chemotherapy," McDowell said. "You don't have to sacrifice your hair or wear a wig if you want to keep your own."

She describes Hair With A Cause as the heartbeat of the organization and OAW as the engine. The foundation's goal is to become a national oncology hair-access foundation, so women don't settle for lower-quality wigs because of cost. It raises money to cover a woman's first fitting or her hair preservation into a wig—whether she orders a customized wig or turns her own hair into one during treatment.