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- When I first opened Gali's Couture Wigs, I made a promise nobody walks away from me or my wigs unhappy. (gentle music) - The thing that scared me away from wigs the most when I started was just like there's nothing worse than a bad wig. I mean, I remember one place, the girl was like fitting me for a wig, she's like pulling at my head. I was like, "Oh, this hurts a little bit." She's like, "Well, it's gonna be uncomfortable. You're wearing a wig." - Yes. - Absolutely. - The other salons that I had ventured to, there wasn't that love, there wasn't that warmth. There wasn't a sense of community. The salon owners were cold. They seemed annoyed that I was taking up too much of their time. - With our black culture, we're so used to very short today, add extension the next day, add like extensions. You do anything to it. It's a fun way to express your beauty. - And it's so crazy how much emphasis we put on hair and the look, and how you feel with a new haircut. And if you like it, you are rocking it, and if you don't like it, you're hiding under a cap until your hair grows out. - I was diagnosed with a really rare form of ovarian cancer when I was 24. It was a cancer that I would definitely need to treat with chemotherapy. And, I mean, the first thing you think of when you hear chemotherapy is, "Oh god, is my hair gonna fall out?" I think it was around my third week of chemo treatment. That was when I was brushing my hair and it was coming out in clumps. And I just remember looking at myself in the mirror and I didn't even recognize myself. I decided to shave it and I took some control back that way but at the end of the day, it wasn't my choice. I felt like I was losing everything. And as soon as anyone would look at me on the street, they would say, "Oh, there's something wrong with her." (gentle music continues) The one thing that I wish I realized when I first found out that my hair was gonna fall out is that the shame I was feeling was not unique to me and I wasn't by myself. - At the beginning, it's hard. You're trying to understand yourself, work with everything that's happening with you at once. My name is Natasha. I am the wig surgeon. Anything that needs to be done to a wig, I do that. As I am growing up, getting into my womanhood understanding who I am as a black woman by doing my hair, my friend's hair, add an extension, do a braid, that leads me to Gali's. It was like a breath of fresh air. I got to know and learn the depth of wearing a wig. - Once I lost my hair, I thought, "This is it." Never going to be in a relationship. I'm going to stay home. I'm gonna be an old spinster. Life is over. And I was just so heartbroken. In 2003, I got married and everyone goes into marriage with all of their best hopes and intentions. And it didn't work out; it led to a very sad, heartbreaking divorce. And I started to have stress induced alopecia areata. (soft music) I was under a tremendous amount of emotional stress, financial stress. I think that my body responded in rejecting my hair. I would see myself with these bald patches and it would hurt my heart deeply. I was wearing bandanas, and I had someone come up to me at a meat market: "(gasps) You have, you have cancer? Are you on chemo?" And I turned around; who's he talking to? I don't have cancer. And I said, "Oh, it's my bandana. It's so obvious that I don't have hair under this." - As women, we're told we have to be skinny and we have to have a smooth face and be contoured. And I think that when you have short hair, there's no hiding behind the contour. - Right, that's so true. - I was in my senior year of college and I thought it was gonna be the best year of my life. I had beautiful long hair. It held curls, it held straight, it held everything, and my hair was my identity. My hair was me. I was diagnosed with ewing sarcoma bone cancer. When I was first admitted to Sloan Kettering, they told me that I needed seven rounds of chemotherapy that would get rid of all the body hair on my body. I looked the doctor in the eyes and I said, "I'm gonna be the one that beats the chemotherapy and doesn't lose my hair." I was in denial. I remember when I did wind up losing my hair, I didn't look in the mirror for two weeks. I just felt like, "How am I gonna be pretty without hair?" Every emotion was going through my head and at that point I was really in the throes of survival mode. My mom found Charlene. I went in with my hat and I walked out with my hair. - My husband and I, we got married in 2001, and we're Orthodox Jews, but we kind of served God our way which was not really the correct way. I prayed, I kept kosher, I did all of the mitzvahs, but the one thing that was so hard for me was anything on the outside, the external mitzvahs. And as an Orthodox Jew, we're expected to cover our hair after we get married. I wasn't doing that. We had a bit of an outlandish lifestyle: jetsetting, yachts, fabulous, phony, obnoxious fake parties with all these top celebrities and CEOs. I had had my fourth child. Thank god now there's five. We were vacationing in Miami Beach. We decided we're gonna go spend the day at the shore with the older boys. We're gonna leave Golly, who had just turned two, at the pool asleep on the lounge chair with my nanny. Finally, we be get back to shore and we're walking towards the pool of my building, and this man is screaming, "Help! 911, somebody help me!" And we see a man standing in the middle of the pool with his back to us. And I quickly looked to see where my daughter is because I left her sound asleep on a lounge chair with an umbrella opened over her. And I see she's not there, but my housekeeper is asleep. So I turn back to this scene, this nightmare, and he turns around and I see he's holding the dead body of my little girl. I'm sorry. I was looking at my child completely blue. I will never ever forget the way her nails looked. The tips of her nails were purple. And I'm looking at this nightmare and I'm thinking, "My life is over." And my husband, who has been a medic for so long began performing CPR. I looked around and I saw that someone had left a blue pashmina shawl on a lounge chair. And I picked up this shawl and I raised up my right arm and I started screaming and sobbing a promise in Hebrew. And I promised God that for the rest of my life I would serve him his way, no longer my terms. I would cover my hair. I would wear a wig. I would dress modestly head to toe. The moment I wrapped my hair in this blue shawl and I started screaming my promise to God, my husband began to scream, "I found a pulse! I got a pulse! I got a pulse!" And eight excruciating hours later, a visit from one hospital to another, and the doctors walked into the room and they said, "You don't understand that your daughter is a complete miracle." And literally, the rest is history. We founded Gali's Couture wigs as a thank you to God that I had my miracle, my salvation by getting with the program and giving up my hair, which was what I was meant to do. - When I actually started liking wearing wigs, it completely changed the narrative, like completely changed the narrative. And I don't think you, maybe you do realize, but it really made a huge difference in all of our lives. I mean it, I really do. - Charlene was the first person I went to for my wig. I came in with my cap and I would not take it off. You had like three wigs ready for me, and I was like, "Okay, are we ready to take it off?" And then I was like, "Okay," and I was so nervous to take the cap off. I thought, "There's no way she's gonna match my hair." - When I first opened Gali's Couture Wigs, I made a promise nobody walks away from me or my wigs unhappy. I'm doing this for a very different reason than everyone else in the wig industry. And as soon as somebody walks in and I can sense that they're a little apprehensive or ashamed or embarrassed, I quickly show them. I say, "I'm wearing a wig. "Every female in this room is wearing a wig. Welcome to Gali's Couture Wigs." I'd like to think of myself and my company as the edit and undo button for wig trauma because people come in almost traumatized and they automatically think that they're going to have a bad experience, and I'm like, "Try us." - It's also amazing how sometimes my client comes in and they're like either a little embarrassed or don't wanna show their head. And it's so crazy how they come in and they get very comfortable and they leave happy. - This girl over here just finished treatment and she came in to cut bangs into her hand-tied custom Golly. - And I'm obsessed with it. It looks so good. - Amanda, you look phenomenal! - When your life is up in shambles and you have no control of anything, what are things you can control? My hair. I can control what's on my head. And my wig was on my head, and I can control that. - That's the beauty of how you can wear the wig, like transform into whatever else and then put it back on and just feel free and happy with it. - When I lost my hair, I felt so alone and isolated and I didn't realize that wearing a wig made me part of a community, a sisterhood, and I'm actually quite happy to be a part of it. - [Group] Awe. (gentle music)

More than 50 percent of women will experience noticeable hair loss in their lifetime—a change that can affect much more than their appearance. In this mini documentary, ELLE.com explores this staggering statistic through the stories of women who’ve been there before, including Hearst executive producer Amanda Kabbabe. After being diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer at 24 years old and losing her hair to chemotherapy, Kabbabe was desperate to feel like herself again. In the process, she met Charlene Aminoff, owner of Gali’s Couture Wigs, and learned about the life-changing experience that led Aminoff to open her shop. Now, Aminoff is dedicated to providing hair coverings for anyone who needs them and has extended her services to those featured in the video and more.

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