welcome my name is attached to sherman and i am your host and my guests today are from a wonderful shop in hamilton call week fal thinking so first i'd like to introduce you to carol and she is the owner of we call thinking and her associate bianca lou welcome both of you thank you thank you for inviting us so this is not only an interesting show for me but a fun show and i just want to let people know right up front we are all wearing wigs fabulous yanks yes and you know we just are not just playful they serve a purpose on many different levels and i want to start out by asking you like you didn't just suddenly wake up one day and say i want to do a week story you had a life's journey that kind of took you there so maybe you would tell us a little bit about that sure first i retired as a senior human resources manager for fortune two hundred company and that was  the d n c twenty twelve i don't want to retire for more perform active life i wanted to really be an entrepreneur but find something in the community that i could give back so what you do is besides researching businesses i did research myself what do i have what skill set what experiences throughout my career can i bring to the table so in doing that way back in the early sixty's i was a cousin titian went to school for that but i'm pursu wasn't a big money maker at the time i was a single parent and went to benefits and stability so i went back into business administration and that career was a good help a career for twenty seven years during that time i was diagnosed with breast cancer in eighty seven with a recurrence in ninety five so these are all the little experiences that brought me here and to you what i did was what i was looking for business i started listening and researching what in the area what in the communities need at the time cupcakes was a trend i could bring nothing to that here but my my daughter says was that a dress shop i was sitting in my b in the beauty shop  i researched that and then with the skills that i had over a lifetime i could pull that together and open up a haven where women could come for whatever reason fun fashion convenience and hair loss to medical conditions would they come and they could feel comfortable compassionate and that we would be there to service them and i wanted to offer a service it's so amazing because i hear it's really important especially to women and you know in doing research you know they talk about historically wigs were worn for a variety of reasons part of it was shave their head so they didn't have light night in the a b c s but particularly for women and one of the things that happens with women that most of us don't realize is that forty percent of women start losing hair naturally zaf way and that you know you can say ok sometimes it's really just a thyroid but then you have this whole population of women going through chemo and losing not only their sense of well being and who they are out in the world and their you know being laid up but then who are they when they look in the mirror and getting yet they're doing and that's what we want to restore for th yeah and for some people being by all these great you know they they wear it proudly because it works for them right but then there are others who feel diminished yes i'm not having hair and many many feel that way and they come to us and they come to  scared crying and the leasing i didn't know was going to be to smudge fun and this is part of their treatment restoring their dignity the femininity and it just changes their outlook and gives them a little more courage to fight the battle that they're going to fight yeah especially if you're already dealing with you may have lost a breath or i do know you're dealing with that part of your identity and now you have no hair and now you have no eyebrows and and and again you also have coming back so this has become part of them and it's just wonderful that i could help that we can help yes so many people think of you changed my life so i mean i believe in a spiritual journey for us yes it really is to help these women on their journey and we take this journey with them it's not that they can mean i sell them away when they're gone we stay with them their relationship is established we continue our relationship because sizing needs to be done maintenance care just training them how to deal with it so we take this journey with them so amazing and i know just for me i came to you because i wanted fun and play acting and something different yeah and our and the experience itself was so transformational and you know it's it wasn't like you grab stuff off the wall and plopped it was you measured my head as you looked at my face shape and you asked about me and who i was and what i would be using it for so that you could actually bring so did you have a background in hair care or did it this was just yes i have then working and salons and doing hair for approximately thirteen years you started at thirteen  medical issues and i came to her and i found a wig myself but carol i actually also we hit it off our personalities and everything like that and then the cosmetology part of it we just and off screen the chemistry was there and that's important for me to have that chemistry in the studio people come in they feel it and so nice and they say what a great team you are and that's important because it's a very intimate purchase  it really is and i and we just lend that compassion that they need and time that they want to select the right piece i'm going to ask you a couple more questions about like who your community is so clearly you have a large segment of your clientele are people who are dealing with health issues correct and then you said you have a fairly large clientele from the transgender community community and i think to myself oh my god how fabulous it is it is that i get the my trance friendly and market and they and they have come they and it's wonderful isn't it the people that we've met that we could help them to do and they're just lovely lovely to deal with they only are let me give them the opportunity to blossom at exactly that was the finishing piece so to speak that was the finishing piece that gave them the book that transformation that they wanted needed and then you told me about someone who husband came in to buy a gift certificate for his wife she travels and rather than travel with all this product and curling irons another out and that has been my challenge forever is just dealing with those things yes and so she wanted a wig that she could take with her you know that's another market a lot of the professional women they go  on business trips to speak they don't want to take all their tools yes there are products they have to wake up to the morning the water isn't the same so when they wash their hair to not coming out right they come take a fitting they take this and could face the challenges of the day just a little better then you have a bad hair day that they over for begin just how we roll so for these women that business women that want to bring their piece and they're ready now ready to get on that little bit about the difference between synthetic and real hair you and then also the maintenance of a wig there are three categories synthetic which is a fiber made from plastic that's really what it is they're human which of course is human it takes seven bunches seven donations of air to make one way to make one ounce yeah that's why they're really expensive the process is what some tense then there's  third category that the blend part human parts and that exceeded the best of both worlds in their and there the three categories and then you were telling me that synthetic which is what i was looking for i don't want to have to mess with a real  so synthetic the style is heated in it's exactly right but it's not heated in to the point where it's stiff and it doesn't move now it's just that you don't have the style of correct it already has and not see the bend this bend is already there you're wearing a synthetic way yes wow and the synthetic today are lovely and that's one of the reasons we ask in the council the purpose if it's easy peasy what do you really looking for the food to recommend the right piece but these pieces human hair requires more care because it's human whenever you washed it it's going to go stay straight you've got to set it again the the market for you here is a lot of our younger clientele who want to be able to set apart curling or have all the looks that going to try on bianca and also i wanted to share with synthetics with humans the cap construction is important and i use this as a so this is a lace front it looks like it's coming out of her sc i take this one off it's real simple yes and let's put a real energy piece on her again ok and you could just change you know wigs for me as well this is become an accessory sure so i shoes women and shoes women inherits it's it said they just go together and depending on what you're wearing can kind of dictate the look you want with the piece two minutes we have a whole different look wow wow that's stunning it is stunning it is and it was that simple it is and actually changes your luck it does and it is a synthetic yes breaks in place other cultures used it as everyday fashion but have a stunning one oh my god again another transformation another total look totally different color we love to change the color do you feel alone and i mean look at look at the back wow just the lines are beautiful amazing ok you have another one i do is so then it says royal patronage was crucial to the revival of the way queen elizabeth the first of england famously wore a red wig tightly and elaborately curled in a row in requote roman curls and then louis a friend started wearing wigs because of being prematurely bald up and then of course you know fashion spreads even to to the courtroom is where in some countries the barristers still put on these long wigs it's a status it's a position it has a lot  different meaning to size vision or presidents john adams to james monroe or curly powdered wigs tied in a cue according to the old fashioned style unlike them the first president george washington never wore a wig instead he powdered curled and tied his own mosque and speaking that the pattered a lot of clients can look at this lovely look clients can in and sit women that standing here to using  that they're using a pattern and when that doesn't work anymore that's when they have to go to with this look at this again conservative fashionable stylish if you're going on a job interview exactly exactly that and i see this becomes an accessory just like a pair of shoes just like a pocketbook wow and then like a turn educate people put it behind your ear do some sassy with the don't be afraid of them around and i think what you said to me when i first left your shop wearing a wig you said own it own it that's what i tell teach people or anybody know i'm wearing a wig only if you act that you do gorgeous and it interesting you know because when i first tried it i thought that i tend not to like anything on my head because i feel slightly headachy with a short period of time  d so i was nervous about it being comfortable and also nervous about it being too warm and the reality is the first time i wore it i worked for two shows and and then left with it wearing it and it was five i was stunned by that actually because they've perfected the cap that it's airy it's light it's not have they used to be very heavy now there's light and it doesn't feel like you have the helmet on yeah yeah you know that maintenance on a synthetic even in the human it's very easy with synthetic you must use synthetic products because this is not here it's a fiber so we want to treated properly so i saw the product line for shampoo condition even here sprays and how you would do it is just like you would do fine washable pool soap cool water everything with synthetic is cool because it is a place that it will melt cruel is the word you don't take a heart blow down no no  so you just a little soap in there put in put your piece in let the silk a few minutes take it out with your spray or just rinse it all in the same direction of the hair patted down good excess that that bend and that permanent style of synthetic but you have a little more luster of the human so that's the blend so that's becoming a popular a popular item as well so tell me about your a little bit about your journey with breast cancer and like that being confronted by all of this and the difference this made to you well when when my clients come in and they realize or i share with them that i'm a  time cancer survivor this emitting media bond i know what they're feeling i know what they're going through there's that connection right away so for me to be able to restore in them that identity and  femininity because i know what it's like to be without the and assure them this isn't the worst part of what you're going through this is the easy part of what you're going to go through and they really embrace that yeah and appreciate that and so you didn't have that for you know you do i would i was diagnosed with cancer in eighty seven they didn't have this this line was insist kate it was heavy i didn't have it i work cap a lot i wore a scarf and i didn't really have a wig that looked attractive you know so i thought you know what this is a good thing because i know what that feels like and i don't want them no they don't have to feel like better yes and i interviewed a woman who a number of years ago she don't with ovarian cancer and so she went through chemo and all of that and she actually wrote a one woman show about it and she talked about going to someone's graduation wearing the wig and that it felt like she was wearing a cap on her hip and it was so high yeah that it was almost on bare and bearable right and that's not what what they are today they're like eerie and it's interesting we have one client she came in and she said oh i fell down the steps but my wig stayed all right i'm no yes no is that ever a concern it's always a concern in order to feel confident in the piece you have to be able to wear and secure it and we have items and products that you can put underneath a great cap a neck cap that will secure that we can keep in place right you know and i work with people and everybody's needs different whose heart is called you know see i think upon their need then i can recommend the proper grip or for underneath their way and then what about getting caught in the rain snow sleet hail you know it's funny because people what happens when it rains so i would say than what happened once it rains on under here right with this don't comb or brush when it's wet and let it dry fluff it right back up and you're right back to you can't do that with human once you becomes wet and straight it stays that way just let it fluffy back up you're good to go so you know we haven't got that much time left i want you to kind of shear it's like the significance of this this is this is a business but it's also a service it's also a passion erny of compassion and salute and you know what would you what's the main message you want women to get i want women to to understand we are there for them whatever the reason for their hair loss with their be medical whether be genetic whether be temporary whether it's permanent we are there for men and we could cater to any of these markets that i mentioned any and all of these markets and i want them to feel that there's discretion there's a place for them to have the privacy room as well because some people are little more private about that than excepted this yet you know so we want them to understand it for their comfortable they they tell me what you did tell me and also i think i'm a beacon of survival and they see that and they they just it just lifts them right up i want to share that with them as well and want to share my experiences with them to help them on their journey because they are going to take a journey so i love that and so tell me what someone would do would they make an appointment what happens when they walk in the door  you can tell me basically when somebody walks in the door what we do is we ask them if they're looking for something where they want to of the same or look different once we help them find a style what we also do is people don't realize that when they're looking at wakes online they're looking at pictures that have already been cut and are given style what we often do then is we help them customize to them as if they were going to a salon we customize the style for them so you do and i remember the i'm glad you mentioned i was there you trim the bangs and yeah i so that's what we do you know they find the perfect piece now we're going to make them feel comfortable in it we customized a style for them we either we style it whether it's using warm tools for them or we steam it for them or we also go in and we offer a special service for them where we can tailor for them we can bring it in a week we customize the style where we i'm after measuring we can bring it in and we tailor it to the perfectly except for their head that we do that to make sure that they feel absolutely perfect and comfortable and make them feel completely like they are themselves and also it's not just the size of someone's head it's the shape so because of this that's where taylor michael who's terrific at it we could take that piece expanded bring it in so it make it actually custom fit now on their journey to gain weight lose weight stretch it out and that's where this relationship is ongoing komi it's a little these come in we adjusted for them that they we can provide that service with they're going to feel comfortable throughout the the somebody told me that people tend to choose the same style and color that they had is classically that falls into the case of women going through treatment right because they think they have to look like they did that makes them feel c e someone like us we want to go a little more fashion flair and like that in play they don't want to play they just want to get another two or deal so they're the ones but once they buy one and they get used to it then they become a little more comfortable and they feel good about themselves and then or a general bit more in the fashion but most of them in that arena when they looked around the way they did before they took ill so we're at the end of our time and i'm just so delighted that you came because this is significant on a lot of levels and so yes your third being a community that really has a need for this on an emotional and psychological and physical level you also are serving a community where it's just playful you get to do something different it's a form of self expression and i think from my experience you do it in such a way that the minute i walked in i felt like i was being taken care of and understood and that this was fun for you yes so i invite people to check you out you're in hamilton on route thirty three way for thinking the information will be in the credits at the end but thank you so much for being here and you for my way thank you for having us we enjoyed it my name is natasha sherman thank you for joining us