Dear Diary,
I had a call from my oldest client today. Its strange that this is a woman that has been buying her wigs from Continental Hair for over 30 years and I have never seen her.
My mother first worked with her in the early ‘80s but then she moved out of the province. But a couple of times a year she calls up and orders the same synthetic wigs and has me send them to her.
I guess I could tell you what her hair looks like, but nothing else. She is very sweet and I always make sure that I have her style of wig in stock. After all these years I would never want to let her down.
Toronto Star / August 24, 1978
She’ll sell her hair to help sick dad
By Paul Dalby
Star staff writer
Marie’s 58-inch hair
The lustrous brown locks cascade down almost to her ankles. Marie’s 58-inch hair is her pride and joy.
But now the 20-year-old Metro girl is prepared to sacrifice her beautiful hair to a wigmaker’s salon for money of it will help her father.
For years Marie’s father had chocked on air filled with fine steel dust as he toiled making bank vaults. Last summer he was take to hospital with what seemed to be pneumonia.
Doctors soon confirmed the pneumonia was just a side-effect of lung cancer. After several operations her father is holding his own but may never work again.
“He gets so tired because he’s always coughing. He gets up at 3 or 4 a.m. because of it,” Maria said.
Bill pile up
Her parents have to watch helplessly as the mortgage payments, property taxes, utility bills and medical costs pile up. She hopes the money for her hair will help ease this burden.
A second-year sciences student on a special university scholarship, Marie plans to go to medical school and later become a missionary. Right now she has no money to ease her family’s predicament.
“They get some allowances from the government but it’s not nearly enough to meet all the bills,” she said. “It makes me feel so sad to see this happening.”
Staying in school
“I had thought of quitting university for two years to earn some money but my father didn’t want me to do that,” she said.
So Marie took a leaf from the classic story of Little Women in which Jo, the second of four daughters, sold her hair so her mother could visit her father who’d been wounded in the American Civil War.
“I don’t know how much I will get for my hair or if it will be enough,” she said yesterday. “I don’t even know who to approach.”
With only three weeks left before she returns to university, Marie wrote to her the Star Probe column to ask for advice.
It has taken nine years to grow her hair to its present length – washing it every other day – and long hours of brushing until it shines.
A quiet, reserved young woman, Marie is not seeking charity and requested her identity not be revealed.
However, Peter Suba, president of Continental Tress Ltd. on Avenue Rd., said he’s willing to pay Mary $200 to keep her hair.
“There’s just no market for human hair anymore,” he said, “and we should know – we used to be one of Metro’s largest buyers of human hair. But right now I’ve got about 100 kilos (220 pounds) of it sitting around that I’m trying to get rid of.”
Suba said, “It would be a disservice to Marie to her to cut her hair. It sounds lovely, and I’ll gladly pay her $200 to keep it.
“And I think any other wigmaker would take the same approach.”
Suba said human hair is “virtually never” used for wigs anymore, since synthetic fibres developed in the past few years are far superior.
“You don’t find a girl like that very often – someone who’s willing to do whatever’s in her power to help her family.
She deserves all the help she can get.”
New You 2002
The Canadian Cosmetic Enhancement, Anti-aging Show
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
January 11-13, 2002
Continental Hair was proud to participate in Canada’s largest cosmetic enhancement show to the consumer. Including over 65,000 square feet of the latest technology, Toronto’s finest physicians, cosmetic dentists, and an array of products and information, Continental Hair gave great demontrations throughout the weekend.
Thousands of Women and Men had the opportunity to explore their Options, attend information seminars and hear first hand about the latest products and services available today.
http://www.newyou.ca
Your Spirit. Your Style.
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
November 2 & 3, 2002
The National Women’s Show 2002Women have a new formula for success – it’s time to stop juggling all the stressful things in life and get balanced! The National Women’s Show has everything for today’s woman all under one roof! No need to jump from store to store, it’s all here! Live fashion shows, entertaining celebrity speakers, a cooking stage, free makeovers, decorating demonstrations, career resources and best of all……lots of shopping!! You will discover new ways to stay healthy, manage business, create the home of your dreams, deal with family issues, and connect with other women. So pamper yourself…. get inspired…. laugh and celebrate your spirit
http://www.nationalwomenshow.com/toronto/
Metro News Toronto / December 11, 2003
Loss is Regained
Women with hair loss can hold their head up high thanks to innovative hair replacement solutions, products and technology from Toronto’s Continental Hair.
Continental Hair has been looking after both men and woman for 40 years.
In 1995, Continental Hair shifted their direction to focus and became the only company in Canada dedicated to woman with hair loss due to chemotherapy, thinning, chemical damage or the hair loss condition alopecia.
“We see alopecia clients as young as four years old,” states Continental Hair president Michael Suba. “About 50 to 60 percent of the women who come to us with thinning hair are in their 20s and 30s.
“We design custom-made wigs and hair systems made of fine-mesh and are hand-knotted. We use processed Asian hair or virgin European hair that has never been dyed,” Suba adds.
“We take a mould of the top of the head – usually making the hair system just a little bigger than the palm of a hand. The system is light, discreet and blends in with the woman’s own hair.”
Unlike men’s salons where existing hair is shaved and the replacement glued on, Continental Hair clients have two options – comb clips that are removable or a permanent attachment that works by pulling the hair through tiny aluminum tubes, looping this hair then tying the system to the loops.
More recently, Suba introduced a painless low-level laser therapy used in Europe for 15 years.
“This low-level laser will keep the hair you have and turn thin baby hair into thicker healthier hair. With damaged hair, when the follicle is dormant and not killed off, the laser has a way of kicking the follicle back into gear and starting some hair growth,” Suba says.
Also, “there is a real stigma about woman and hair loss, so we are really careful to make sure they look good. When they see we can,… they are ecstatic,” add Suba.
Continental Hair has two locations: 92 ½ Avenue Rd., 416.923.7747, and Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre, 2025 Bayview Ave., “T” Wing, 416.480.5157.
Kathryn Kates
For Metro News Toronto
Elevate Magazine / Autumn 2004 / Portrait
By Pam Fulford
Cynthia Brandt is bald. And she couldn’t be happier – She never had a bad hair day.
Tell us about your condition – alopecia – and what triggered it?
There are three main types of alopecia: alopecia areata (patches of hair missing on the scalp and body), alopecia totalis (baldness on the scalp only) and alopecia universalis (baldness on the scalp and the body). I go back and forth between totalis and universalis. Actually, it’s all rather ironic – I can’t grow a single hair on my head, but I still have to wax my lip. How is that fair? My husband jokes I should grow it out and do a comb-over! Alopecia is believed to be an autoimmune disorder – a disease caused by the body producing an immune response against its own tissues. When I was 16, I was in a car accident. A week later, my hair fell out; I could pull it out by the fistful. Obviously, I must have had a genetic predisposition to it. Fourteen years later, I’m still bald.
Why did you decide to start wearing wigs?
At the beginning, I wore nothing but wigs, because I didn’t want anyone to know I was bald. Playing sports was hard. I was reluctant on the field because I was worried the wig would fall off. When I started dating, once guys found out I was bald, they lost interest. Over the years, I just got more and more comfortable in my own skin. Now, most of the time I don’t wear wigs, but I’ve had some fun, wild ones over the years. For me, it’s like playing dress-up. I’m a huge fan of Continental Hair, where I buy all my wigs, and Michael Suba, who styles all of them.
So when you buy a wig, you’re not trying to hide?
I embrace my baldness. I don’t understand why people are negative about alopecia. It’s just hair. There are so many other things in life that are worse. Maybe it’s my personality, or the fact that I come from a long line of strong women who’ve dealt with a lot worse, but I think true beauty in life comes through hardship. I’ve taken this opportunity to become a better woman, instead of being bitter. Besides, I rather enjoy all the attention I get when I’m wearing wigs!
How did your family react when you lost your hair and starting wearing a wig?
I think my mother had the toughest time. She cried when I bought my very first wig. My dad is old-fashioned and begged me to wear a wig on my wedding day. Instead, I walked down the aisle bald with a beautiful wreath of flowers. I felt so pretty. As for my husband, when I first met him, I was wearing a wig, so he didn’t know right away. He says that before he met me he could never imagine marrying a bald woman; now he can’t imagine being married to someone who isn’t bald.
What’s your advice to a woman buying her first wig?
Buy human hair – it’s worth it! Synthetic hair looks like Barbie hair to me. I have three human-hair wigs – and most people have no idea it’s not my real hair. I’ve got a blonde, a brunette and a redhead, and I’m planning to buy another soon. There’s a new form of technology that vacuums the hair to your head, sealing it like Tupperware. It will never fall off, and you can even swim with it on!
What’s your biggest frustration?
The most frustrating thing about alopecia is that it can come and go. A year after I lost my hair, it almost all grew back, but then it fell out again. It was more upsetting the second time around. I recently lost my eyebrows again and I miss them! It’s a real nuisance to have to paint them on every morning. It’s difficult to get them perfectly balanced. I’ve debated getting permanent makeup, but I’m nervous if they do grow back, will I have four eyebrows?!
What are your hobbies and interests?
My girlfriends. We play soccer together, which I love. I also like biking, reading and being outdoors. I love being a mom. I hate to shop, but I love to hang out wherever there’s good company. My friends and I often go to the Duke of Gloucester, the pub that sponsors our team in the Toronto Soccer League.
Wigs styled by Michael Suba, Continental Hair, 416-923-7747.
source: www.elevatemagazine.com
