Community Magazine July 2016

SIVAN - TAMUZ 5776 JULY 2016 55 “I can fill a book with the miracles that my customers experience after cutting their wigs” One community woman, Adina*, entered Fortune Wigs for her wig to be cut. Adina had wanted to take the step for a while, and came hoping to merit a reversal of fortune - she stood to suffer a tremendous financial loss in the coming days. She cut an inch and a half off of her wig and, the very next morning, she called Fortune Wigs to thank them for the cut… and to inform them that her financial issues had miraculously straightened out. Another woman, Linda*, was becoming more and more observant. While she had been cutting her wig over the years in half-inch increments, one day, on impulse, she came into Fortune Wigs requesting a four-inch cut. No sooner did she get up from the salon’s swivel chair did she receive a shocking phone call from her husband. “Linda,” her husband gasped, “I just got into a terrible car accident. My car flipped three times and it is totaled. As for me – it’s a miracle! – I escaped without a scratch!” Linda collapsed onto the chair as quickly as she had stood up. She was shaking. “It took me so many years to reach this point in cutting my wig, but look where it got me,” she said with tears in her eyes. “The seniut cut is a wonderful kaballah (undertaking) for the growing women of our community,” says Esther. The fact that it is free eliminates the expense as a deterrent from doing so. “It is so motivating to see the influx of women wanting to cut their wigs after an inspirational gathering,” she relates, mentioning the most recent one, Turning Tragedy into Triumph , in memory of the Sassoon children. Our Brides Even brides who had always planned to cover their hair after their weddings need encouragement. “I try to empower the girls with the desire to have their wigs be as modest as possible,” Esther says. The problem begins, explains Esther, when a girl wants her hair at a longer length for her wedding, and then feels funny going shorter later on. Esther relates that in Mexico’s Syrian community, the wives of kollel men, who are considered role models to the other women, are required to keep their wigs no longer than shoulder length. “At some point, though, everyone figures out that they are ready for a seniut jump, each in her own way,” Esther observes. “And that makes me more and more inspired.” * Names have been changed. Jumping In – An UnlikelyStart Esther Tobias describes the establishment of Fortune Wigs: Four years before Fortune Wigs was born, I started out washing and blowing hair. Years of styling my own curly hair as a teenager lent to my experience, but I’d never dreamed of doing it as a business. Sure, people would come to me asking if I could “just do this” and “just do that” to their hair or wig, but that was the extent of it. At the time, I was content working with my mother at her housekeeper agency. One day, a friend came to pick up her wig from my house. “Do you mind if I offer your services as a prize at Yeshivat Ateret Torah’s annual Chinese auction?” she asked. “My pleasure,” I consented, believing she was referring to Fortune Services, my mother’s agency. Several weeks later, the phone calls came.“I won a free wash and set. When can I come?”Huh? Boggled, I called my friend, who explained that she had offered six coupons for free wash and sets as prizes in Ateret Torah’s auction. Oh. So that is what my friend was talking about! I realized, too late.One of the winners, an elderly woman, sent me into a panic. The woman called with endless questions about my experience and ability to cut her wig. I was intimidated from the woman, who seemed to be entrusting me with the care of her $3,500 wig. I was petrified to help her and my stomach ached at the thought. With the intention of turning over the job to an officially trained wig stylist, I opened a magazine, which turned out to be a pivotal move. Instead of finding an alternate stylist, I noticed an ad for a wig-cutting course by the renowned Georgie of Boro Park. Impulsively, I signed up, for the course, whose start date was the very next morning. In the midst of the mayhem, the woman with the hundred questions arrived with her wig – which was synthetic and worth no more than 40 dollars. Naturally, I wanted to back out of the course - I had signed up, after all, practically for this woman’s sake - but it was too late. Once I was enrolled, Georgie, recognized that I was not a “newbie” like the other participants and let me help her with some of her wig jobs. In 1998, I started a wig business in my basement, which later relocated to an extension in the back of my house, and, finally, to the storefront around the corner from my home on Coney Island Avenue. The whole series of events was a huge stroke of Hashem’s Providence, for, without His guiding Hand, I never would have jumped in.