A Day at Wigs-R-Us

I’ve been encouraged by one of my mentors to make lists of photography ideas to pull from. It’s become a great habit - letting ideas simmer in the subconscious until they’re ready to be made real. One note I had scribbled down was: photograph a bald woman in a wig store. It felt surface-level, just something I jotted quickly, and I’d completely forgotten that a year earlier I had photographed my friend Jessica shaving her head for the first time.

Jessica was diagnosed with alopecia at 25, and when it hit me that she would be the perfect person for this idea, I pitched the concept of doing a fitting at Wigs-R-Us, a boutique shop in Toronto. Both Jessica and the store owner were immediately onboard. We were invited to hang out for the afternoon, try on wigs, talk, laugh - myself included, which felt fitting considering I’m also bald.

What started as a simple idea turned into something much more grounded and meaningful, a little project I approached with sensitivity, curiosity, and grace.