MORAVIA - Sometimes the best birthday gifts are those you didn't even know you wanted.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Owner of Awaken Spa & Salon in Moravia, Aftin Rushak-Lamson, right, measures Paige Fairbanks' hair as Paige's mom Patricia Fairbanks, reflected in mirror, watches before Paige gets her hair cut. Paige is donating her hair to Locks of Love in memory of her grandfather who passed away from cancer on Sept. 15, 2005.
Owner of Awaken Spa & Salon in Moravia, Aftin Rushak-Lamson, right, measures Paige Fairbanks' hair as Paige's mom Patricia Fairbanks, reflected in mirror, watches before Paige gets her hair cut. Paige is donating her hair to Locks of Love in memory of her grandfather who passed away from cancer on Sept. 15, 2005.
“He wouldn't have wanted her to cut it (her hair) off,” said Elizabeth Figgolari, widow of Albert Figgolari who died of cancer two years ago come Sept. 15. “But he'd understand why.”
Six-year-old Paige Fairbanks from Moravia arrived at Awaken Salon and Spa on Aurora Street in Moravia at noon Thursday, what would have been Albert's - her grandfather - 78th birthday, to donate 16 inches of her long light brown hair to Locks of Love. The organization will then use the hair to create wigs for children with cancer.
She got the idea in the last year her grandfather was alive, Patricia Fairbanks, Paige's mother, said. They would take him to and from his chemotherapy and dialysis treatment sessions, which Albert would go to five days a week.
“She would see the (children) there going through (chemotherapy) and say ‘Mommy, I have lots of hair. Can I give them some of mine?'” Patricia recalled.
As Paige stood outside the salon, she was excited. When she sat in the chair, Awaken owner Aftin Rushak-Lamson measured the locks, and it was decided they would cut 16 of the 17 inches that flowed from the top of her shoulders.
Tying it off into a long ponytail, Rushak-Lamson cut off the hair that will be sent to the foundation in Lake Worth, Fla.
Since opening in April, she has done four Locks of Love cuts, Rushak-Lamson said.
“Mainly because I have a big mouth,” she said. “People come in and I say, ‘Let's cut off 10 inches. Ten inches is the minimum for Locks of Love.”
Rushak-Lamson said she believes something close to 92 percent of all hair received is used by the charity for children suffering from cancer. The remaining locks are sold at market value to benefit the organization.
Paige sat anxiously in the stylist's chair as Rushak-Lamson continued to style her new, albeit much shorter ‘do.
“Keep that bobbling head still, girlfriend,” Rushak-Lamson tells Paige, who wouldn't look at the final style until it was complete.
“She's only had probably two trimmings her whole life. At the end there, she didn't like seeing him (Albert) so unhappy. And what did you tell me you wanted to see?” Patricia asked Paige who suddenly got shy. “She wanted smiles.”
Albert was suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer that Patricia described as a form of bone cancer that eats at the blood cells. The Web site, www.multiplemyeloma.org, defines the disease as an excessive number of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow. It is incurable.
“It first hits the kidneys,” Elizabeth said. “He knew there was no survival, and the dialysis was so horrible for him to go through -- painful.”
He died about three days after he quit treatment, Elizabeth said.
Rushak-Lamson finished blow-drying Paige's hair, and the young girl looked in the mirror at the transformation and immediately began swishing it around, feeling the difference.
In another six years, she said she'll do the same thing.
“(My father) was a strict Italian. He wouldn't have wanted her to cut her hair,” Patricia said. “I couldn't cut mine or get my ears pierced until I was 18.”
Maybe, however, knowing that on that 78th birthday his granddaughter helped put a smile on some child's face, Paige too would have gotten what she wanted -- a smile on Albert's.
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 236 or at laura.boyce@lee.net
Six-year-old Paige Fairbanks from Moravia arrived at Awaken Salon and Spa on Aurora Street in Moravia at noon Thursday, what would have been Albert's - her grandfather - 78th birthday, to donate 16 inches of her long light brown hair to Locks of Love. The organization will then use the hair to create wigs for children with cancer.
She got the idea in the last year her grandfather was alive, Patricia Fairbanks, Paige's mother, said. They would take him to and from his chemotherapy and dialysis treatment sessions, which Albert would go to five days a week.
“She would see the (children) there going through (chemotherapy) and say ‘Mommy, I have lots of hair. Can I give them some of mine?'” Patricia recalled.
As Paige stood outside the salon, she was excited. When she sat in the chair, Awaken owner Aftin Rushak-Lamson measured the locks, and it was decided they would cut 16 of the 17 inches that flowed from the top of her shoulders.
Tying it off into a long ponytail, Rushak-Lamson cut off the hair that will be sent to the foundation in Lake Worth, Fla.
Since opening in April, she has done four Locks of Love cuts, Rushak-Lamson said.
“Mainly because I have a big mouth,” she said. “People come in and I say, ‘Let's cut off 10 inches. Ten inches is the minimum for Locks of Love.”
Rushak-Lamson said she believes something close to 92 percent of all hair received is used by the charity for children suffering from cancer. The remaining locks are sold at market value to benefit the organization.
Paige sat anxiously in the stylist's chair as Rushak-Lamson continued to style her new, albeit much shorter ‘do.
“Keep that bobbling head still, girlfriend,” Rushak-Lamson tells Paige, who wouldn't look at the final style until it was complete.
“She's only had probably two trimmings her whole life. At the end there, she didn't like seeing him (Albert) so unhappy. And what did you tell me you wanted to see?” Patricia asked Paige who suddenly got shy. “She wanted smiles.”
Albert was suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer that Patricia described as a form of bone cancer that eats at the blood cells. The Web site, www.multiplemyeloma.org, defines the disease as an excessive number of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow. It is incurable.
“It first hits the kidneys,” Elizabeth said. “He knew there was no survival, and the dialysis was so horrible for him to go through -- painful.”
He died about three days after he quit treatment, Elizabeth said.
Rushak-Lamson finished blow-drying Paige's hair, and the young girl looked in the mirror at the transformation and immediately began swishing it around, feeling the difference.
In another six years, she said she'll do the same thing.
“(My father) was a strict Italian. He wouldn't have wanted her to cut her hair,” Patricia said. “I couldn't cut mine or get my ears pierced until I was 18.”
Maybe, however, knowing that on that 78th birthday his granddaughter helped put a smile on some child's face, Paige too would have gotten what she wanted -- a smile on Albert's.
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 236 or at laura.boyce@lee.net
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