Mothers and Daughters and Sisters (Oh My)

When someone has been in business long enough you start to meet a lot of people that are connected. You can call it the ‘seven degrees of hair replacement’.

I have had several clients that have brought in their mothers, or their sisters. Since much of hair loss is genetic this is not so surprising. But it does give me a nice feeling that a client is so happy with what I do that she would bring someone close to her to see me. I love being able to see them march through life together. One gets married (or re-married). Babies are born. Parties are planned. Life just happens. And seeing sisters or a mom and her daughter going through it together is good to see.

And then when one is battling a disease this is when the relationship can really shine. Had a whole crew (army? bevy?) of sisters here last month helping one of their own go through choosing a wig because of chemotherapy treatments. They helped make what can be one of the most stressful parts of treatment into an enjoyable experience. It is something that sisters can and often do.

Because this is in essence a family business I sometimes get a real blast from the past. One client yesterday, a woman of advanced years, that was getting a wig because of her thinning hair. I asked her how she heard about Continental Hair and she said her sister bought a fall from my mother in the early ’70s. She remarked that many of the salons in Toronto used to get their hair additions from Continental back then (we used to wholesale as well). As an aside I remember at about that time giving my grade one teacher a fall from the salon. I still remember how crazy excited she got when she saw it. She modeled it constantly asking me if the colour matched. I think I got a good report card that year.

I was really surprised when I was told that one of my sister clients, the younger, was over 30. They both came to see me almost 10 years ago. One is getting married, the other is buying a house. Both are gorgeous and successful. But it is difficult to realize how long they have been friends.

I guess that is a good thing.