When Venita Graves launched her nonprofit Magnificence Past Breast Most cancers in 2010, she wasn’t chasing accolades or entrepreneurship. She was answering a calling.
A hairstylist and most cancers survivor herself, Graves acknowledged a painful void for girls, particularly Black ladies, present process therapy.
“When a girl loses her hair, her eyebrows, her lashes, there’s a sure disappointment that comes with that,” she says. “And I knew we would have liked an area the place ladies might really feel lovely once more,actually really feel it, not simply faux.”
Throughout from her suite at Salon Meyerland, Graves created a wig boutique. The partitions are lined with vibrant wigs in each shade and texture, fastidiously chosen to mirror the sweetness and variety of the ladies who stroll by means of her doorways. However what really defines this house is the power.
“We discuss, we chortle, we cry, we pray typically all in the identical hour,” Graves says. “I don’t simply need them to seize a wig and go. I need them to go away right here feeling complete once more.”
The mission was born from Graves’s personal expertise navigating breast most cancers as a stylist. She started volunteering at MD Anderson Most cancers Middle, serving to ladies select wigs and instructing them how you can tie scarves with dignity. However over time, she seen that many ladies, notably ladies of shade, left with wigs that didn’t match their aesthetic, tradition or fashion.
“They have been fundamental,” Graves says. “We like aptitude. We like selection. I needed to provide ladies wigs that mirrored who they have been earlier than most cancers,and who they may very well be after.”
Immediately, Magnificence Past Breast Most cancers serves a whole bunch of ladies every year, lots of whom stroll in unsure and depart remodeled.
Survivor’s Testimony
Angela Value-Hardeman’s breast most cancers journey was as a lot emotional because it was bodily and it practically broke her spirit.
“I believed I used to be a brick home,” she says with a bittersweet chortle, “36G and assured. My breasts have been my signature. So when docs instructed me I wanted a double mastectomy, I instructed them I’d quite die.”
Value-Hardeman was recognized with triple-negative breast most cancers, stage two, grade three, on Labor Day weekend in 2022. It was a shock, however not a complete shock. Her grandmother had battled breast most cancers, and Value-Hardeman had already raised issues about discomfort in her breast months earlier than the official analysis.
“I knew one thing was flawed. I instructed the primary physician, however they brushed it off after the mammogram got here again clear,” she says. “I pushed for a second opinion once I bought a brand new physician. Thank God I did. She insisted on extra testing, and that’s after they discovered it.”
Her id was as soon as tied carefully to her bodily type, nevertheless it was stripped down. When she regarded within the mirror, she didn’t acknowledge herself.
“I misplaced my eyebrows, lashes, my breasts, my weight,” she says. “I didn’t need to depart the home.”
However amid her lowest level, Magnificence Past Breast Most cancers discovered her. Value-Hardeman credit Graves and the expertise with serving to restore her outer look and sense of self-worth.
“Miss Venita made me really feel lovely once more,” she says. “She gave me a wig that jogged my memory of me, the outdated me, the daring me. And she or he didn’t cease there. She prayed with me. She hugged me. She noticed me.”
Redefining the which means of magnificence after breast most cancers was a difficult journey for Kimberly Williams. Magnificence as soon as lived within the bounce of her curls, the power in her smile and the arrogance that got here from merely being herself. However in 2021, a breast most cancers analysis challenged every part she thought she knew about her look and her id.
She had stage 3 breast most cancers. Remedy would require 16 weeks of chemotherapy, lumpectomy, and radiation on daily basis for 30 days. The method can be bodily grueling, however for Williams, probably the most troublesome components was shedding her hair.
“I used to be identified for my hair,” she stated. “It was an enormous a part of my id. I didn’t assume I used to be useless till I watched it fall out.”
At first, she tried to carry on, however ultimately, the mirror pressured her to decide. With tears in her eyes, she shaved her head.
“That day was one of many lowest,” Williams recalled. “I felt like a special particular person. I didn’t see magnificence anymore, I noticed illness.”
“Magnificence isn’t what you see on journal covers. It’s what you see when a girl seems to be at herself once more with satisfaction. When she says, ‘I nonetheless bought it.’ That’s magnificence. And that’s what we do right here.”
Venita Graves, Founder, Magnificence Past Breast Most cancers
A cousin in Georgia mailed her high-quality wigs that resembled her pure curls. She started experimenting with make-up once more, discovering pleasure in routines that made her really feel complete. She documented her journey in images, typically glamorous, typically tearful, however all the time actual.
“Even once I cried, I took footage,” she stated. “I needed to see myself as I used to be, not simply how most cancers made me look.”
She additionally leaned into self-care, massages, skincare, journaling, prayer. These small acts helped her reconnect with a model of magnificence that had little to do with outward look and every part to do with how she felt in her pores and skin.
“I additionally took half in Venita’s calendar photoshoots for breast most cancers survivors,” she stated. “It helped me reclaim a part of myself. She created an environment of empowerment as an alternative of pity.”
Photoshoots and Runways
Considered one of Graves’ signature initiatives is the annual Magnificence Past Breast Most cancers Calendar, which options 11 survivors every year in full glam, hair, make-up and wardrobe captured in a celebratory photoshoot.
“It’s greater than a calendar,” Graves explains. “It’s a memento. It’s proof to every lady that she remains to be right here, nonetheless glowing, nonetheless radiant.”
The calendars function the initiative’s principal fundraiser, serving to to maintain the house operating and inventory new wigs. However maybe no occasion matches the emotional magnitude of the annual vogue present.
“It’s not your typical New York runway,” Graves laughs. “That is pleasure on show. That is ladies strolling in energy some after shedding breasts, hair, even limbs. However honey, after they strut, they personal that stage.”
When requested what she hopes Magnificence Past Breast Most cancers teaches society about magnificence, Graves doesn’t hesitate.
“Magnificence isn’t what you see on journal covers. It’s what you see when a girl seems to be at herself once more with satisfaction. When she says, ‘I nonetheless bought it.’ That’s magnificence. And that’s what we do right here.”
