Hometown Rankin - October & November 2016

Brandon resident Lisa McFadden is on an unlikely mission
to make women with cancer look and feel better.
“This isn’t something I set out to do in life,”
laughs Lisa McFadden of Rankin County.
“I really kind of fought it. But obviously, it’s
a God-thing that I’m supposed to be doing.”
McFadden grew up in the hair salon
business, working with her mom and dad at
the Kirkland Hair Studio, a salon they’ve
owned in downtown Jackson for many years.
“About 15 years ago, my dad really wanted me
to work with all the ladies who came in with
thinning hair or hair loss,” she recalled. “I began
learning more about hair loss in women and
saw that what I was doing was making a
difference in how those ladies felt about
themselves.”
One day, a distraught mother called
McFadden about her daughter who had been
diagnosed with malignant melanoma in her
brain. The patient was a young mother who
had just given birth to her second child. “She
suffered from a headache that wouldn’t go
away, and all along she thought it was from
the anesthesia that was administered before
childbirth. But the medical staff realized it
was something more and they sent her for
tests and the cancer was discovered.”
That young mother was Whitney Luckett,
who came into the salon with her mother that
day ten years ago to consult with McFadden.
“It was about 4:00 in the afternoon, and
Whitney was really in a bad way. Her hair was
already thinning due the chemo drugs she
was getting, and she was very self-conscious.
I helped her pick out a wig in a catalog and I
ordered it next-day delivery.” Luckett and her
mother returned to the salon the next day and
tried on the wig. “It looked amazing on her,”
said McFadden. “Her mother called Whitney’s
husband, who worked just down the street, to
come see it. When he got there he said, ‘That’s
your hair!’ Whitney asked him to take her to eat
at the Mayflower, something she would have
been too embarrassed to do the day before.”
While McFadden had never worked with
cancer patients before, that experience was an
“aha” moment for the hairdresser. “I knew I
had to help other women with cancer, because
I saw the difference it made in Whitney’s life.
It also gave me a renewed appreciation for other
women who suffer from permanent hair loss.”
McFadden embraced fully the idea of
helping cancer patients and began visiting
hospitals and cancer centers in the area. In
doing so, she learned that what most women
with cancer want is to look like themselves.
“That gives them a better sense of wellness
and when they look good, they feel better and
they have more of a fight in them. Every
doctor I’ve spoken with has told me that.”
She began teaching the “Look Good, Feel
Better” class at Women’s Hospital and St.
Dominic’s, but after a while she became
frustrated with that. “The class was focused on
makeup, but what I saw was that women were
more concerned with their hair, or lack of it.
I began learning what wigs were out there, and
which wigs were better suited to certain people.
For example, some chemo drugs have hormones
in them, and that makes the patients hot. Add
that to living through a Mississippi summer,
and a lot of wigs are just too tight and too hot
for people to feel comfortable wearing. I’ve
found wigs that are lighter and breathe more.”
Budget is often an issue for some cancer
patients, so McFadden works to get the best
wig possible for the money. “If you spend $200
on something that’s hot and itchy, you simply
won’t wear it. But if you can find something
that looks great and is comfortable for $400,
that might be worth it to you. However, that
may be too much for some people, so we do
the best we can with the budget they have.”
The longer she’s involved in this work, the
more McFadden has learned. “I found a
product recently that women can use to keep
their eyelashes and eyebrows from falling out
during chemo. You can put a wig on a head
with no hair, but when there are no eyelashes
or eyebrows, the person just doesn’t look the
same.” A certain kind of chemo will often
cause patients’ nails to come off the nail beds.
“My husband found a product that helps with
that, and many have come in showing me their
nails, which are stronger than ever.”
Learning about the different chemo drugs
used in treatment and the effects they can have
on the body has been essential for McFadden
to continue the work she does. “I work closely
with the doctors and nurses, and I help counsel
my clients when they have questions. I know I
can always call one of the nurses or doctors
when there’s a question about something I’m
not sure about.”
It’s been a rewarding journey for McFadden,
and she says she is very focused now on the
often uncertain journey cancer patients are on.
“This work has been the biggest blessing to me.
I owe this all to Whitney, who lived to see her
baby’s second birthday before she passed away.
I think of her often, and how she unknowingly
led me to the work I’m doing today.” n
Hometown Rankin • 55