Photo by Comunicas FoundationBy Ingrid Andrade
In 2015, just two weeks before her daughter’s graduation, Dianne Austin got diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It’s the biggest shock in the world,” recalls. Shortly after her diagnosis, Dianne found out she was going to lose all of her hair during her chemotherapy treatment.
After receiving a wig prescription from her doctor, Austin visited and called various hospitals looking for wigs that resembled her naturally curly hair, “I wanted to look as much like myself as possible during what was a really difficult time”.
After calling over ten different hospitals, Dianne found that she couldn’t find any wigs that resembled her natural hair in the hospital cancer centers.
“It showed a lack of cultural sensitivity,” expressed Dianne.
Her journey with cancer opened her eyes to the different beauty standards that were being imposed on women. For that reason, Diane decided to support women with cancer trying to embrace their natural hair and hopefully along the way educate the medical system.
Dianne and her sister Pamela Shaddock started a blog a few years ago where they discuss natural hair: www.naturalhairnews.com. In the website, they discuss the different social, economic, and personal impacts of wearing your hair natural. They guide women who want to wear their hair natural in the right direction.
The sisters also have started a Dorchester based company called Coils to Locs to help women and men with curly, coily, or kinky hair gets wigs at their cancer centers and not through private sellers. At the current moment, patients seeking these curly wigs have to go through private sellers, as they are not offered by hospitals. This option doesn’t allow patients to get medical coverage. Coils to Locs will supply curly wigs to hospitals and will allow patients to use their insurance.
Dianne has also expertise in Human Resources including diversity and inclusion, leadership development, and employee management. She studied Mass Communications at Emerson College and is a former Administrative Fellow at Harvard University.
Coils to Locs is in its pre-launch stages and hopes to launch early next year. Even though they will provide predominantly medical wigs that are kinky, coily, or curly, they will also be providing wigs for other hair types. Dianne is hoping her business will bring more awareness to the beauty and medical community.
