I get a lot of customers ask me “what does Lace Front mean?” – well Lace Front wig are usually on styles that do not have bangs.  They are for off the face styles to give you a natural realistic hairline along your hairline.  Some lace front wigs do come with a good 1-2 inches of lace sticking out of the front hairline and you do have trim off yourself – this is easy and you cut it back close the edge of the wig – leaving about 1cm sticking out to rest on your forehead.  A lot of the lace front styles by Raquel Welch and Jon Renau for example only have a tiny little piece of lace extending from the middle section of your front hairline and there are a few strands of hair attached to the lace piece – giving the illusion of hair growth from your head and it sits softly on your skin with no glue or tape.  Some of the “full lace” wigs you see on celebrities where they are wearing their hair up do require glue all the way around and these types of styles are not practical for every day wear.  But the easy to wear lace front wigs from Raquel Welch, Jon Renau, Envy, Revlon etc are great for every day wear.  Here are a couple close up images of models wearing lace front wigs and an image of the cap itself so you can see the lace piece.  Last picture is of me in Zara Lace Front wig by Jon Renau.

Cancer has always been a familiar word from where I come from.  Two of my grand-parents plus many aunts and uncles went through the disease and many died along the way, the opponent being stronger than they were or should I say than the therapies have made them… In addition, my father has been working most of his life treating patients at the hospital.

So when the doctor told me, in September 2005, I had stage 3 breast cancer (advanced breast cancer), at 38 years old while my kids were 6 months old and 4 years old, my step-daughter was 7 years old (I just stopped breastfeeding to go back to work, before, I thought the lump was due to blocked milk canals and even if my son was crying to be breastfed every hour I thought it was due to his premature state).  I couldn’t believe my doctor told me I would survive only one year if I was lucky…

Before my dream of motherhood became real, I’ve had 3 miscarriages at 3 or 4 months of pregnancy, then I had a fourth miscarriage at 5 weeks in between my kids so how cruel life was to finally grant me those two wonderful kids if it was to make me leave them as orphans so soon?  I was not ready to give up the fight and decided I would do my best to survive: first 4 cycles of chemotherapy (the tumor was too big to try surgery, chances were it was tied to my ribs and we needed to make it shrink) before taking it out of my body along with 19 axillary lymph nodes.  Many of my nodes were positive and despite the 9cm diameter of tumor they took away, it was bigger and they had to do another surgery.

I started 2006 at the hospital.  Then a few months later, after going through chemo again and radiation oncology, we talked about my family history which was very bad in terms of genetics and what I could do to survive and be there for my family… It was crystal clear I had to get rid of my breasts and my ovaries, tubes and uterus… It was possible to have a breast reconstruction done right after the double mastectomy so in 4 years and a half, I went through 7 surgeries and thought my skies had finally cleared out and that it was time for sun to shine…

I worked with the Breast Cancer Foundation of Quebec as a spokesperson for hope, life and dreams… I have been walking the CIBC Run for the cure for 4 years now… Cancer brought me a totally new insight on priorities… My family, friends and colleagues were all very supportive…

Back pain and belly pain started two years ago.  I even started having problems walking because my hip was hurting. My ribs were hurting me, I thought I broke them while working (as a rep, I have a physical job carrying boxes, opening my car trunk about 20 times per day).  All of the tests that were done came back negative until my December 23^rd 2010 bone scan showing metastasis everywhere on my skeleton…

I went through radiation-therapy twice, anti-hormonotherapy, chemotherapy (7 cycles that haven’t worked their magic plus so far 2 cycles of another agent).  My case is now terminal.  They can’t say how many weeks or months but I now have, aside from bones, fast-growing liver metastases as well as something on my right lung.  Still, I refuse to believe my life can be over. At 44, I want to see my kids grow up, meet my grand-kids but I want to still raise money for cancer research because mine is genetic and there’s a good chance my kids have my genes, a mutated BRCA-2 gene, linked to breast, ovarian, prostate and probably skin and pancreas cancers… Usually, that BRCA-2 gene was supposed to repair damage done to the genetic material (DNA), but since it is “broken” it is deficient.  I also want research to continue to have some nicer treatment options for the patients who sometimes give up because of harsh side effects or become so immunosuppressed that they die from infections that would normally be inoffensive…  Also, I wish men and women would do their auto-exam searching for lumps.

Through that journey, family, friends and colleagues have been there but also people I’ve met along the way, people you talk with and become friend with, even without ever having met them…  This is what happened with Liz of Gorgeous Hair, thanks to her I could cover my bald head with beautiful wigs to keep me warm and make me feel…healthy again!

Diane Raymond

Nov. 18^th 2011

Hi everyone – well in November Gorgeous Hair is going to be donating 10% of all sales to the Canadian Cancer Research Society. However in the meantime and this is something that will continue forever – I am donating 50% of the sale of any pink wigs we sell on the Gorgeous Hair website to Cancer Research. So please buy a pink wig!  If are running in a marathon to support cancer wear a pink wig!  If you know someone who is involved in support cancer research – and they need a pink wig- send them the Gorgeous Hair website!

Just click on the picture of me in the pink wig to take you to the selection of pink wigs we offer!  Thanks!!

Hi – well if you need to wear a wig or even if you don’t need to wear a wig – why not try out different colours!  You can go out for dinner as a redhead or a blonde when you are naturally a brunette. At the end of the night you are back to your normal colour again!  Wigs can be fun, even if you do need to wear one.  Next time you go to buy a wig – try on some other colours to see how they look  and feel.  If you have your own hair its also a great way to change up the length or colour without changing your own hair!  Go shorter or longer whenever you want!  There are blonde and highlighted shades that have darker roots – check out Estetica, Revlon, Raquel Welch and Envy wig lines. They all have rooted colours.

I have long dark brown hair just past my shoulders and have been blonde in the past.  But as I do not want to put any bleach in my hair ever again I now have a blonde wig (with dark roots as that is what works on me) and a brown/copper wig – so I can switch up my colour when I feel like it.  I also have clip in extensions for length and a headband wig for a bit of length and thickness when I feel like it!

Well as per my previous posts back in November I was a fully highlighted blonde and decided to go back to my natural colour, dark brown, so I could recover my badly damaged hair.  I am loving being a brunette and it does suit me so well as its natural.  After 6 months I have about 4 inches of hair that is healthy and in great condition, the rest of my hair is frizzy of course once its washed and dry.  So I have to use my hair straighteners on that part of my hair to make it look smooth.  The ends are thin and scraggly and I really should have 4 inches cut off but can’t bring myself to do that until my hair is another 4 inches longer as I love having long hair.   But a few trims a year and a couple more years and I should have long lush healthy hair again.

But I do miss being blonde sometimes especially as summer is here now.  So as I sell wigs I thought I would get a blonde wig but I needed on that would work on me and my face.  When I was blonde, only the golden blonde shades really worked on me and of course being naturally very dark I always had a bit of dark root showing at my part and the hairline by my ears.  So I knew a solid blonde wig, even a 2 or 3 shade blonde wig would not work on me. I needed a blonde wig with dark roots – thanks to Revlon I found one.  I did try a few other long blonde wigs that were blonde at the roots too and I looked odd. Revlon do selection of their wigs in what they call “progressive colours” where the roots are darker – to give a very natural look.  I wanted a long wig too.  I found the perfect wig and have fooled a few people already into thinking I have gone blonde again!  The wig is called FREELY by Revlon and the colour is called Golden Sunset.  Its a great and fast simple way to be a blonde whenever I feel like it without damaging my hair!