Haircuts to fight breast cancer

Nancy Friedman needed to get her hair cut — it was falling out from chemotherapy treatment.

“And it just doesn’t fall out like a little bit, and it comes up in huge chunks,” said Friedman, 65, adding that all of the hair falls out. “They say the only good part is you don’t have to shave your legs.”

She drove to a nearby hair salon, Hair Salon Expo and Day Spa at the Sands Shopping Center. It took two minutes to shave her head, and she was charged $30. Friedman expressed her dissatisfaction with the price on Facebook. The owners of the salon contacted her and said they would hold an event to raise money for breast cancer research.

On July 8 from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. all proceeds from Hair Expo will go to the James F. Holland Research Fund at Mount Sinai Hospital. This includes haircuts, blowouts and wig styling. Walk-ins are welcome, but wig styling is by appointment only.

Also, now cancer patients get their first cut and first wig styling for free at Hair Expo.

Many residents and more than 30 local businesses — Mio Posto, Pizzaiola, Kasey’s, Viaggo Tapas, to name a few — gave their time and resources to make the event even bigger. (The Herald donated advertising space.)

“The best thing about it to me is how the community came out and helped,” said Friedman. “And they have rallied. They keep telling me ‘Don’t worry about it, you’re one of us.’ And that to me is the most beautiful part of the whole story.”

There will be gift cards raffled off between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., as well as wine and food.

Friedman also wants women to know that they should get a mammogram every year. “I’m a walking advertisement,” she said. “If I had waited two years like they said you should I would have died.”

She credits Zwanger-Pesiri for catching her cancer at an early mammogram. Now she has to go through 22 weeks of chemotherapy — every other week for 11 weeks and once a week for another 11 weeks. Her husband, Howard, has lung cancer. They spend their time driving to doctors.

Before treatment made it too difficult, Friedman was a volunteer at Atria Tanglewood in Lynbrook, where she would play games trivia with the senior citizen residents. She would teach them how to use apps, which would surprise their grandchildren. She was also sales representative for the Herald Newspapers for 16 years.