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Mostly Cloudy Seaford salon gives cancer patient a new look
Massapequa teen receives special makeover
“Honestly, I thought this would never be over,” 15-year-old Lexi Shaw said of her wrangle with cancer. “[But] there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is an ending. Everything will all be OK at the end.”
On Feb. 9, Steven Anderson and Andrew Ashton, who oversee the My Fairy Godfathers Foundation, in Clearwater, Fla., flew to Long Island to give Shaw a complete makeover — makeup and hair — at Philip Michael Salon in Seaford.
The Massapequa High School sophomore was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in one of her kidneys last June and shaved her head after frequent chemotherapy treatments. Even though the cancer was found in an organ, it is a rare bone cancer that affects people ages 10 to 20, according to WebMD. It has a high recovery rate, however, and Shaw is well on her way back to normal health.
Anderson and Ashton did their best to make Shaw smile through the roughly two-hour makeover, which involved fresh makeup and several wigs. The pair brought her four wig options, and she chose a shoulder-length brown one.
As a result of the chemo, Shaw has no eyelashes or eyebrows. The men showed her how to use makeup creatively to compensate, and enhance her features. “We basically were trying to show her how to put back her eyebrows and to try to get a little bit handy with putting on some eyelashes,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that he and Ashton perform their services for women “for the smile on their face.” “We try to bring a little happiness and joy,” he added.
Lexi’s makeover
Some 15 family members and friends gathered to support Shaw on her special day. Shaw said she was excited about the makeover, and loved what she saw when Anderson and Ashton were finished and she looked in the mirror. “I love the wig that I have,” she said a week and half later. “I wear it a lot.”
She was shocked to find out she had cancer, she recalled, and since her diagnosis she has endured semiweekly, six- to eight-hour chemotherapy treatments at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens. “Then they told me I was going to lose my hair, and that really freaked me out,” she recounted, “because, as a girl, having really long hair, it was really scary.”
Shaw will finish the chemotherapy this spring, and then undergo a PET scan, to make sure the cancer is gone, followed by monthly checkups. She described her case of Ewing’s as somewhat mild. “[The doctors] told me from the start they knew everything would be OK,” she said. “They said that it’s a very treatable cancer, because of the location of it in my kidney.”
Her mother, Debbie, said she was emotional and felt excited for her daughter during the makeover. She said that Lexi was headed to a party that night, so the makeover happened on a good day.
The cancer has not changed her daughter, Debbie said. “She still smiles every day,” she said. “She still has a great attitude. There’s days she’s wiping my tears away … She’s amazing.”
Anderson and Ashton found out about Shaw from her English teacher at Massapequa High, Teresa Colgan, who is Anderson’s sister. Colgan said that Shaw has been primarily home-schooled this year because of her treatments. “I just thought … an afternoon with the Fairy Godfathers would lift her spirits and make her feel better,” Colgan said.
Colgan came to the salon for the makeover. “Lexi was so happy and so excited,” she said, “and I think she was very pleased with the finished product.”
A lot of people worked together to make the event happen, Colgan said. “Philip, who owns Philip Michael salon, welcomed us into his salon for the afternoon, which was amazing,” she said.
Michael said he was told about the makeover by one of his stylists, Toni Gualtiere. “We’ve been in the community for over 25 years,” he said, “and we were thrilled to be able to host [Shaw].”
He described her as a vibrant young lady. “I wish her all the love and respect,” he said, “because she is tackling this head-on.”
