HOLLAND, Mich. — A salon owner has started a wig line, inspired by her own breast cancer journey.
Longtime nurse Kristin Vandenbrink decided to make a major career change before learning she had cancer.
She went to beauty school and opened her salon, Beautiful Me Hair Studio, in December 2019.
"Three months later, covid hit," Vandenbrink recalled.
The pandemic forced her to close the salon temporarily, but a bigger setback was looming.
"In September of 2020, I went for my yearly physical and my nurse practitioner found a lump. That's when my world went spinning out of control," she told FOX 17 News. "Shortly after that, [I was] diagnosed with triple positive breast cancer."
Vandenbrink began treatment immediately, including a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.
"Losing your hair is when the rubber hits the road. That's when you really look in the mirror and you're like, oh my gosh, I have cancer," she explained. "I thought, I know hair. How are people who don't know anything about hair handling this? And it's very, very overwhelming."
The salon owner purchased her first human hair wig and began to research the human hair industry.
"I really felt that God wanted me to bring wigs into the salon, and this is a huge need, which I found out very quickly," Vandenbrink said. "So then I just Google search, how do you make a wig? So I purchased a couple courses and taught myself how to make a wig."
Vandenbrink began to seek out ethically sourced hair- using a client's donation- to craft her first wig.
"I just said I am going to sit down in front of the sewing machine. I'm going to figure out how to get this hair from a ponytail onto a wig cap," she said. "I spent a whole summer just trial and error...I just kept feeling that nudge and passion and mission to just keep putting one step in front of the other and now here I am."
The stylist has created nearly two dozen full wigs and many other styles like the popular "Sage" which allows the wearer to use the unit with a hat or up in a ponytail.
"It's evolving, and it's very organic, and it's just really exciting," she said. "Creating my own method of the wefting has allowed me to be able to take cancer clients' own hair and use their hair in their wig."
Along with cancer patients, the wigs are also designed for those with hair loss conditions like alopecia.
"It really just brings me so much joy," Vandenbrink said. "Being there for these women and giving them back a piece of themselves is the most rewarding gift. It makes me very emotional."
Vandenbrink is now in remission and looking forward to how she can continue to make a difference.
"I'm feeling really confident that I'm hopefully over the mountain of it, and I'm just really excited to see how God is going to use my story to influence other people and to walk with other women through their journey," she said. "Just try and be a light in the darkness."
Hair donations are needed, along with volunteers to help with the time-consuming wefting and hand knotting.
To learn more, visit Beautiful Me Hair Studio's website or Facebook page.
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