Coils to Locs, the Boston startup that provides afro-textured wigs to women experiencing hair loss, has launched its first e-commerce site.
The company was co-founded in 2019 by sisters Dianne Austin and Pamela Shaddock. Austin had gone through her own hair loss journey after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and undergoing chemotherapy. When she was unable to find an afro-textured wig at her hospital’s cancer center boutique, the sisters decided to make sure this wouldn’t happen to other women.
In the first few years after its launch, Coils to Locs sold its wigs through a dozen hospitals and medical centers across the country. But Shaddock said the plan was always to make their products more universally available.
“We constantly get emails, whether it’s via email or social media, from women asking us how can I get your wigs. And if they aren’t accessing these cancer center boutiques because they don’t have chemotherapy hair loss, they don’t have cancer, and they have a different type of medical reason as to why they’re losing their hair, or non-medical reason,” Shaddock said. “We just saw a huge need based on our research as well as on the women who are constantly asking us for them.”
Austin said the new online shop would allow Coils to Locs to sell to women with all forms of medical hair loss, as well as women who just enjoy wearing wigs. She said they will continue to sell to their hospital vendors, but they will offer different styles of wigs through their e-commerce site.
The wigs range in price from $150 to $200. Some of the styles include a synthetic coily 12" wig and a long synthetic 18" faux loc wig. The wigs that feature hats are called Kimmie Caps, named after Austin and Shaddock’s sister who passed away in 2020.
Coils to Locs will also educate customers on getting insurance to reimburse wigs. Shaddock said many people do not realize that wigs can often be covered by insurance for people with medical hair loss.
Austin said the site will also grow to include videos on how to care for the wigs and, through a faculty member at Northeastern University, augmented reality so people can try on wigs virtually.
Coils to Locs has been supported over the past few years by the team at the Emmanuel College Business Collaborative, the FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab and the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation and the NAACP, among others.
Austin said their main goal is making sure women have easy access to products that are important to them.
“As it relates to this medical hair loss space and Black women, it’s not as easy as you might think it is to get the type of wig that you’re looking for and to get the support, particularly if you have health insurance reimbursement, to get the support that you need to get the wig that makes you look as much like yourself as possible,” Austin said.
