KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

Kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Feel­ing over­whelmed when deal­ing with hair loss is all too fa­mil­iar to Jami­la Ban­nis­ter.

The brand and mar­ket­ing strate­gist has been work­ing in a num­ber of ar­eas, in­clud­ing gov­ern­ment agen­cies, law en­force­ment, fi­nan­cial ser­vices as well as health and fit­ness, since 2007.

How­ev­er, her fast-paced life slowed down af­ter re­ceiv­ing the news of her breast can­cer di­ag­no­sis in 2023.

Af­ter start­ing chemother­a­py, her hair start­ed thin­ning and falling out.

That thrust her in­to a whole new realm.

“You feel con­fused about where to start when you need to buy a wig or get ex­ten­sions that suit you,” she ex­plained.

“Whether your hair loss is sud­den, like the type I ex­pe­ri­enced from chemother­a­py, or it’s hap­pened slow­ly, that trau­ma is the same and it can re­al­ly cause you to sink in­to a deep hole.”

Chemother­a­py us­es pow­er­ful med­i­cines that at­tack fast-grow­ing can­cer cells. The med­i­cines al­so hurt oth­er fast-grow­ing cells in the body – which in­clude cells in hair roots. Hair usu­al­ly be­gins falling out two to four weeks af­ter treat­ment be­gins. Hair loss typ­i­cal­ly con­tin­ues through­out treat­ment and up to a few weeks af­ter­wards.

Like, most peo­ple who ex­pe­ri­ence this, she said she sought op­tions to main­tain her phys­i­cal ap­pear­ance in the form of wigs.

“I know when I was look­ing for my wig, it was def­i­nite­ly a tri­al-and-er­ror sit­u­a­tion, I just saw some­thing that looked like it could work and got it. Since then, I’ve been able to learn more about the styles I like and know that I can help an over­whelmed or con­fused woman,” Ban­nis­ter said.

“The truth is, women who live with hair loss are of­ten fight­ing oth­er health bat­tles un­der the sur­face and hav­ing a brand that gives you ex­act­ly what you need and com­mu­ni­ty who can re­late to your sto­ry is price­less.”

It’s the rea­son Ban­nis­ter’s launched the Beau­ti­ful Mar­ket, an ecom­merce store fo­cused on sell­ing wigs, top­pers, ex­ten­sions and beau­ty prod­ucts to women who live with hair loss.

“The Beau­ti­ful Mar­ket is a brand and con­cept that evolved from my love for beau­ty, my work in mar­ket­ing and my lived ex­pe­ri­enced with hair loss,” she said.

“In 2023, I was fired from a job and to sup­ple­ment my in­come, I de­cid­ed to in­vest in a long-time dream of mine to start a beau­ty busi­ness. But a few weeks af­ter plac­ing an or­der for in­ven­to­ry, I was di­ag­nosed with breast can­cer.

“The di­ag­no­sis meant go­ing through chemother­a­py, a treat­ment that caus­es your hair to fall out. It was one of the most dif­fi­cult times in my life and al­though I was in­vest­ing in a busi­ness to start sell­ing hair, up to the point of my di­ag­no­sis, I, per­son­al­ly, had nev­er worn a wig.”

Her di­ag­no­sis meant putting every­thing in her life on hold to fo­cus on her health both men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly.

“Then, me, the girl who had nev­er worn a wig was wear­ing one every day to hide in plain sight from every­one I knew,” she added.

“When I de­cid­ed to get back to my busi­ness, I knew the pur­pose of my busi­ness had to change. It couldn’t just be about sell­ing hair. It had to be about serv­ing a com­mu­ni­ty of women who live with hair loss every day. The war­rior women who get up, get dressed and keep mov­ing in spite of chal­lenges.”

The Beau­ti­ful Mar­ket has been cu­rat­ed for women who live with hair loss.

“It could be par­tial hair loss like thin­ning hair or loss around the edges of your head, or it could be to­tal hair loss like the type you ex­pe­ri­ence with chemother­a­py or alope­cia,” Ban­nis­ter added.

“The pieces that we car­ry con­sid­er all types of hair loss and hair tex­tures. Be­cause hair loss is not con­fined to any colour, creed, class or age, we car­ry hair that can blend with dif­fer­ent hair types.”

She added, “We al­so car­ry a se­lec­tion at dif­fer­ent price points. This was very im­por­tant to me be­cause I know what it’s like to be ill, be low on dis­pos­able in­come, while still want­i­ng to look beau­ti­ful and pre­sentable. If you want to in­vest in a piece that is glam­orous and high qual­i­ty, we have some­thing for you, and if you’re more con­ser­v­a­tive with your bud­get, you can get that too.”

With the Beau­ti­ful Mar­ket, Ban­nis­ter hopes to serve an un­der­served mar­ket with more dig­ni­ty and com­pas­sion.

“I’m now ex­pe­ri­enc­ing new growth post-chemother­a­py, but I still wear my wig when I want a glam­orous trans­for­ma­tion or when I just feel to switch up my look,” she said.

“I al­so hope that this brand can help to change peo­ple’s at­ti­tude about wig-wear­ing be­cause the truth is there is still a lot of wig sham­ing in so­ci­ety.

“Wear­ing a wig or clip-ins or ex­ten­sions for many women isn’t about dup­ing any­one. It’s about pro­tect­ing them­selves, feel­ing safe and pre­serv­ing their beau­ty as much as pos­si­ble in the midst of what could pos­si­bly be a fight for their lives.”

Learn more at www.the­beau­ti­ful­mar­ket.com