PAINT THE TOWN

Salon snips at cancer

Participants in the YWCA Teen Outreach Program sent thank-you cards to Soto Loft and Signature Spa in Perrysburg for offering free services to the TOP participants.

Usually when I go to a salon, I am worried about how I'm going to look for an event, or how much I have to tip my pedicurist for the hours it takes to slough off my calluses.

Lately, I've been obsessing about how much of my hair is falling out as my hormones crash in the postpartum roller coaster. Me, me, me.

But other women are walking into Soto Loft and Signature Spa self-conscious that all of their hair is falling out. And I mean all: tresses, eyebrows, eyelashes, all of it.

They are undergoing chemotherapy, a drug that is killing their cancer but also acting like a poison to other healthy body systems.

The staff at Soto's, as the Perrysburg salon is known by its familiars, provides complimentary services to oncology patients who bring in a special card from Mercy St. Anne Hospital or the Victory Center non-profit center, both in Toldeo.

"We just like to pamper them," said senior stylist Mary Wilson, of Perrysburg.

READ MORE: Paint the Town blog post