Teen cancer wig scheme helps 60 girls feel fabulous

The Teenage Cancer Trusts Hair 4U offers wigs to young girls who suffer hair loss as a result of chemotherapy.

Oct 2010

A Campaign for teenage girls with cancer has provided almost 60 youngsters with real hair wigs.

The Teenage Cancer Trust's Hair 4U offers wigs to young girls who suffer hair loss as a result of chemotherapy.

It involves Edinburgh hairdressing icon Charlie Miller offering free one-to-one consultations at his Stafford Street salon, where he fits, cuts and styles the wigs.

Rachel Blair, 18, who was diagnosed with Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis - a rare, life-threatening condition, primarily affecting young children - on Mother's Day 2008, is one of many girls to have benefited from the initiative. She was given the all-clear a year ago.

The former Tynecastle High School pupil, who lives on Sighthill Loan, said: "I got an NHS wig but it was a fibre wig and it was like Barbie hair. It would get matted all the time and wouldn't sit right. Having the real hair wig made a huge difference; it was long, my natural hair colour - brown - and just how my hair used to be.

"To have the feeling of it being real and sitting nicely, and no-one looking at you twice because you've got a hat on with no hair or a really bad wig, makes you feel the same as everybody else."

Rachel, who believes Hair 4U is of huge importance, added: "It's the silly things you miss, like shoving your hair up or playing with it."

Hair 4U was partly inspired by Zoe King, from West Lothian, who lost her fight against cancer just days before her 18th birthday in 2007.

Mr Miller, 66, who has helped fit and cut wigs for between 50 and 60 girls across Edinburgh and the Lothians since Hair 4U started in 2008, said: "I go with the girls to a wig supplier in Canonmills and then I prepare the wig that they choose at the salon.

"When they come back for their next appointment, I cut the wig on them, which can take, on average, two hours to make it belong to them.

"I can get it so you wouldn't know it's a wig and when I see that twinkle coming into their eye, I know they're thinking 'this is working'. You can see the parents lighting up because they know their daughter's feeling happy."

He added: "I try to make the wig as close to their original hair as possible, unless they want a change."

Several other hairdressers across Scotland - selected by Mr Miller - are also involved in Hair 4U and there are plans to extend it south of the border.

Mr Miller said: "For me I have never found the right word - to say it's a pleasure or honour to help these girls, doesn't seem right. I'm so glad and very happy that I can do it for them."

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