Salon offers extensions as breast-cancer fundraiser

Pink hair isn’t just for the bold and artistic types this month. Dozens of women, men and children around the Flathead Valley are sporting neon streaks in support of local breast-cancer patients.

Andrea Marron, the owner of En Vogue Salon in Columbia Falls, started the fundraiser eight years ago when her aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The hairstylist saw an opportunity to raise money to help out with expenses associated with her aunt’s care and treatment through her salon by offering clients a $10 bright pink hair extension and donating all the proceeds to help defray her aunt’s medical expenses.

Though she was unsure whether her patrons would feel comfortable donating to a cause benefiting a specific person rather than an organization, Marron, 32, said the idea caught fire in the community, bringing in around $700.

The year after, Marron said, she had no plans to revive the fundraiser, but multiple calls from clients prompted her to continue.

“They thought it was really neat that the money went to someone directly instead of who knows how it gets distributed,” Marron said. “All the organizations are wonderful, but it’s nice to know it’s going directly to a person.”

With help from her coworkers, Marron said she found a second local recipient and so established a tradition.

“This just totally exploded,” she said. “We were over $3,000 last year — in a month!”

An open house hosted by Marron and her team the first Friday night in October usually draws most of the action, Marron said.

Featuring pink lemonade and pink cookies to match the pink hair, this year’s extension party on Oct. 5 drew in well over 100 clients eager to support their neighbors.

Women and children crowded the salon, with a few men joining in to get a hot-pink beard extension.

Made from dyed human hair, the extensions take about two minutes to glue in and usually last around three to four weeks.

Two out of the eight years she’s held the fundraiser, Marron said she was unable to find a benefactor in time for the event and so decided to donate to a breast cancer foundation such as Save a Sister.

Collections in those years, she said, were significantly lower than the years when she is able to share information about the person her clients’ donations are helping.

“Whenever we have a specific person, it’s just crazy,” she said. “We get some help from some pretty incredible local folks.”

One of those folks is Jill Van der Ahe, 43, who has been participating in the fundraiser every year since it began.

She had just come from a mammogram on Monday morning when she arrived for her yearly pink extension appointment.

Van der Ahe lost her mother to breast cancer in the early 1980s when she was around 5 years old.

“That just kind of stuck with me throughout my life,” she said. “It’s my way of honoring her memory and helping the women who are struggling with it every day.”

This year’s recipient is Lisa Hill, a Kalispell woman who received her diagnosis about a week before the fundraiser began.

So far this year, Marron and her team have raised over $1,400, but she expects a few more appointments will trickle in throughout the month.

The benefit also moved an anonymous donor, who offered to match whatever funds the drive collects this year.

“I think it’s phenomenal,” Van der Ahe said. “I try and be a part of it as much as I can because it just shows how the community comes together in dealing with stuff like this.”

To make an appointment or for more information, call En Vogue Salon at 892-9696.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.