No one should have to wear a wig

Wiggin Out, a salon in Newport Beach, can use clients' own locks to craft post-chemotherapy hair extensions.Let's make one thing clear: Newport Beach's Wiggin Out Salon is not a wig store.

In fact, owner Constance Walsh had a specifically anti-wig agenda when she opened her salon.

"It was created so that women wouldn't have to wear wigs," Walsh said.

Her idea was to provide a service for women who have undergone chemotherapy and lost their hair. Walsh and her three employees can craft hair extensions by cutting a clients' hair and saving it for when she finishes treatment.

Walsh said she can also special-order hair for women who find the salon only after beginning chemotherapy.

One of Walsh's clients is Kathleen Rusch, a 56-year-old Huntington Beach resident whose blond hair falls just below her shoulders. Rusch said she found Wiggin Out in June after losing her locks to chemotherapy.

"Losing your hair is actually worse than the whole diagnosis," Rusch said. "It just makes you feel sick and look sick."

After an operation to remove a lump from her breast, Rusch underwent chemotherapy from August to December of last year, she said. She also made her way through more than 30 radiation treatments in order to defeat breast cancer. She has not needed any treatment since January.

When she first walked into Wiggin Out, her hair was about an inch-and-one-half long. Except for her bangs, her current hairstyle is the work of Wiggin Out.

"We basically designed the exact same hairstyle she had before she lost her hair," Walsh said.

Though Walsh started her business to help cancer patients, she said only about a quarter of her clients have come to her after going through chemotherapy.

Walsh envisions Wiggin Out becoming a chain and would also like to start a school for aspiring stylists. Before someone can work for Wiggin Out, they must complete a six-month training regimen that Walsh compared to boot camp.

"They have to learn to do extensions with their eyes closed," he said.

Wiggin Out Salon is at 371 Old Newport Blvd., Newport Beach.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@latimes.com.

20051121iq9ql0knMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Owner Constance Walsh, right, runs a comb through the hair extensions of Kathleen Rusch of Huntington Beach at the Wiggin Out salon in Newport Beach.