BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer
For years, cancer patients in the Woodbridge area dealing with hair loss as a result of radiation treatments had no choice but to buy wigs from a counter person at a local store.
Roxanne Corba wanted to change that.
“They need a comfortable environment,” she said. “They need to be pampered — not just buy a wig and be out the door.”
After working for 12 years at a hair replacement center that her girlfriend owned, Corba decided to strike out on her own and open what she calls an “image enhancement spa.”
Angelic Care, located on Main Street in specializes in medical-related hair loss and breast surgery products.
“We want to make hair loss a little less traumatizing,” she said.
Many of Corba’s clients are breast cancer patients. She said they’ve told her losing their hair is worse than losing their breast.
“Because that is where everyone is going to see,” Corba said. “I’m here to make them feel good. We offer them information on hair pieces, how to handle their hair loss, what options they have. It’s so important to get everybody in the beginning, before they begin to lose their hair.”
What clients find when they enter the Main Street storefront of Angelic Care is not the sterile setting of a surgical supply store, but a Victorian sitting room draped in royal purple hues and smelling of potpourri and scented candles.
Suellen Bennett, of North Brunswick, found Angelic Care last year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“My treatment included a mastectomy,” Bennett said. “I knew I would need a prosthesis. I was looking for a place to go. One of the most frequented places for them are surgical supply places where you have to be fitted while you’re staring at wheelchairs and bedpans. Where in here am I supposed to get a boob?”
Bennett thinks of the spa as a “Victorian oasis.”
Once she began her radiation treatments, Bennett turned to Angelic Care for her hair piece as well.
“They do everything a surgical supply store can’t do,” she said. “I started chemo in June and ordered my hair piece. I get everything through them. It’s like going into a high-end clothing store. It’s positive and welcoming and nurturing.
Corba said she wanted to open her shop after she watched her grandmother’s experience with cancer.
“I went through sicknesses in my family and I realized there really wasn’t much out there to help cancer patients,” she said. “They need a bit more different care.”
Beside hair loss, people with cancer sometimes experience other side effects, Corba said, such as bags under the eyes and sallow complexions.
Corba also has two skin care specialists on her staff as well as a certified massage therapist to give more comprehensive care to her clients.
Andrea Carrancho is Corba’s newest staff member. As Corba’s esthetician, she gives women who have their new hair pieces makeovers and teaches them how to care for their skin.
Although she is experiencing for the first time people coping with cancer, Carrancho said she appreciates the experience.
“I wouldn’t say it’s hard to deal with,” she said. “But you do think a little differently about the things you take for granted. A lot of clients we have a friendship with. We joke around with them. It’s never uncomfortable.”
When women come in looking for a hair piece, Corba said she advises them to not experiment with hair color or style. She said the point is to look natural.
“I never recommend to people to change their look during this time,” she said. “It’s so traumatic as it is. You have to get used to [hair loss] to get used to another color and style is a little too much.”
Once a color and style is selected, Corba schedules clients to come in for a fitting and a cut prior to them losing their hair.
“We recommend they come back when they still have their hair so when they lose their hair, they’ve gotten used to the hair piece already,” Corba said.
After a client begins losing their hair, Corba has the client return for an adjustment.
“As soon they start losing their hair, they come right back in,” she said. “For an adjustment and just to talk and give them a little bit more support and styling tips. We try to stay close with them for the first trying weeks. It’s a little bit of added support.”
When Corba is not in her shop, she can also be found at area hospitals, where in collaboration with the Cancer Institute of New Jersey she presents free wellness programs to cancer patients about hair loss, wig shopping and presurgery and postsurgery breast products.
Corba wants to make a video that new clients could screen when they come to her shop.
“So many people call me up crying, but then to see them at the end with their new hair pieces is so rewarding,” she said. “ I wish I had a video that follows a client through the process that I could show so that new clients don’t have to be afraid right now.”
Olga O’Reilly, of Point Pleasant, is one such success story.
“Everyone says to me, ‘Oh you did something new with your hair,’” she said. “No, I only improved it.”
O’Reilly said she lost her hair 12 years ago after a radiation treatment and it never grew back so she now wears hair pieces.
“My daughter lives in Woodbridge,” she said. “I wore wigs but I was never happy with what it looked like. My daughter said I had to try this place, so I went and they took care of me. Roxanne gives you good advice on how to handle this wig.”
O’Reilly said she always has a pleasant experience at Angelic Care.
“Some people may hesitate to do it, but I feel great,” she said. “I’m 85, but I feel like I’m 60 with my wig. Without it, I’m 85.”
Angelic Care is located at 76 Main St. in Woodbridge. Call (732) 634-6200 for more information.