Sonoma County businesses specialize in products for cancer patients

Rachel Gardea has seen sales triple in the past year at her nearly 2-year-old wig business, where most of the customers are dealing with health issues such as cancer.

For clients with cancer, the top fear may be death, but “their second biggest fear is losing their hair,” said Gardea, owner of Gardeaux Wigs in Santa Rosa.

Gardea is one of a handful of small- business owners who sell items and services to those battling cancer.

At Gardeaux, five employees work in a business park on Dutton Avenue to help Gardea take unfinished wigs and dye or highlight the hand-tied strands of human hair. The wigs start at about $700 and can cost as much at $4,500. Clients can expect to wear some for up to six months, and others for a few years. The wigs generally last longer the less they are dyed.

Along with the production site, Gardea has a retail shop on Fourth Street. But many clients purchases her wigs on Etsy, an e-commerce website. She ships wigs to Australia, Switzerland, Spain, Dubai and London.

“They definitely go all over the world,” she said.

While cancer survivors make up a significant portion of clients, Gardea said, even more customers are coping with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks hair follicles. According to the National Institutes of Health, many people with the disease end up with only a few bare patches on their scalps, but some suffer the complete loss of hair on head, face and body.

One of the county’s longstanding businesses serving breast cancer patients is Sonoma Surgical Supply in Santa Rosa. The company sells mastectomy prosthetics and bras, head coverings and custom compression garments, which can address swelling in arms and legs.

Owner Rosalyn Sweet, whose father started the business in 1958, said Sonoma Surgical began selling the bras and related items in the late 1970s. A key change came in 1998 when Congress passed the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act, which requires most health insurance plans that cover mastectomies to also cover breast reconstruction. Post-surgical bras and external breast forms are also covered under the law.

“This is so female identity oriented,” Sweet said of how breast cancer affects women.

Today three female members of the staff of 10 provide free custom fittings for bras and prosthetics. The fittings typically begin with an appointment following a referral and prescription from a doctor’s office.

“Our fitters that attend to folks are trained and certified and very experienced,” Sweet said. They offer assistance to help “make you look normal in your clothes.”

Today a few businesses are adapting to provide more services to cancer patients.

At Cypress Day Spa in Santa Rosa, owner Amelia James is working toward placing several services under one roof. James, an esthetician, recently received an oncology certification for skin and beauty treatments. The spa’s hair stylists and permanent makeup artist have received similar certificates for their specialties.

James said she believes there will be demand at the spa by cancer patients “once they know they can go to one place.”

She hopes to offer the new array of services next year.

Missy Pendas, who runs Permanent Cosmetics at the spa, said a good portion of her business involves clients with medical conditions, including cancer.

Common services include permanent eyebrows and eyeliner.

“They don’t want to look like they have cancer,” Pendas said of clients.

Pendas, who also sells wigs at the spa, said next year she plans to begin formally training others in the application of permanent cosmetics.

“The fact that I’m so busy tells me there’s not enough people doing it,” she said.

Such work falls under the regulation of the county health department, similar to tattoo parlors and other body art businesses.

Another permanent cosmetics artist, Robin Pels of Santa Rosa Cosmetics Ink, said she doesn’t serve many cancer patients during normal business. But she does provide free “areola tattooing” each month for up to two women who have undergone mastectomies.

When clients with cancer or other illnesses seek her services, the most common request is for permanent eyebrows, Pels said. Some come to her before receiving oncology treatment.

She recalled one client saying, “If I’m in the hospital, all I want is my eyebrows on.”

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 707-521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit