Salons all over the country are rising to the occasion, organizing specialty services and events to raise funds during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. ✂ —Desiree Cole
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) Month, and everyone can play a part. Many salons across the nation are talking to clients about early detection, hosting fundraisers for a cure or providing makeover services, especially for clients who have beat the battle.
Neroli Salon & Spa in Milwaukee will be raising awareness this October with a Spin 2 Win Wheel, where guests can donate $10 and spin for an opportunity to win products, services or retail savings. After raising nearly $1,000 in one week in 2013 on one wheel, the team decided to invest in more wheels for each of their five locations this year. “We listen to the concerns of our guests and know that breast cancer has touched many of them in some way,” says Susan Haise, Neroli Salon & Spa owner. “Giving back is at the core of our organization, and we feel strongly about supporting local efforts for causes that have a personal connection to our guests and our team, which is why our passion for breast cancer awareness continues to be so strong after 20-plus years of support.”
Memphis-based Gould’s Day Spa & Salon plans to create pink baskets filled with monogrammed gifts, blow-dryers, flat-irons, gift cards and perfumes for an annual silent auction. Gould’s Day Spa & Salon will also designate days for staff to wear jeans and pink shirts in support of awareness; host a spaghetti dinner for clients, with ticket proceeds benefitting BCA organizations; arrange a company-wide Race For The Cure where participants find sponsors for donations; and host Dancing with the Survivors, a donation event in which contestants dance in honor of a survivor. All proceeds benefitpinkfund.org, an organization that helps cover breast cancer patients’ nonmedical costs, such as living expenses, for 90 days. “We want to be leaders in making women aware of the importance of getting mammograms, doing self-exams and promoting BCA with fun events, donations, and yes—even pink hair,” says Gould’s Day Spa & Salon corporate employee Judy Williams. Likewise, The Spa at Mandarin Oriental in New York City will be BCA-focused this month with a special service: the Inner Strength massage, designed to ease tense muscles and emotional stress from trauma. A portion of the proceeds from the service will be donated to BCA organizations. At Fancy Nancy Salon & Day Spa in Nashua, NH, clients receive a pink hair extension in exchange for a $10 donation; breast cancer survivors receive the Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Strands free every year. In order to increase donations and support, owner Nancy Keyslay and the salon’s 27 stylists promote the service through flyers, and also visit local hospitals to spread the word about their events to nurses and patients.
FROM TOP: Gould’s Day Spa & Salon employees and friends wear shirts to raise breast cancer awareness; Gould Day Spa & Salon’s Judy Williams and her daughter at a Wings Cancer Foundation’s event; a portion of proceeds from a massage service at The Spa at Mandarin Oriental in New York is donated to BCA organizations.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of the mandarin oriental the hotel group (massage); COURTESY OF GOULD’s DAY SPA & SALON