Feel Your Breast: Free Hair Salon Visits for Breast Cancer Patients
A Pawsitively 4 Pink initiative. Breast cancer survivor Lauren Howe launched Feel Your Breast in April 2025 in collaboration with Pawsitively 4 Pink and Fitchburg’s First Class Hair Design. Each partner becomes a welcoming hair salon for cancer patients, helping women feel their best during treatment and recovery while raising awareness about breast cancer and the importance of self-breast exams, one salon visit at a time.
What Is Feel Your Breast?
As Lauren’s community leadership project through the North Central Massachusetts Community Leadership Institute Program (Class of 2025), Feel Your Breast harnesses the unique community of hair salons to provide meaningful, tangible support to women undergoing breast cancer treatment and recovery.
Inspired by Lauren’s own experience and the generosity of First Class Hair Design, the program aims to provide comfort and a sense of normalcy during a challenging time, while salons share information on breast cancer awareness and self-breast exams, and Pawsitively 4 Pink continues to offer emotional and financial support along the way.
Feel Your Breast offers up to five complimentary hair washes and blowouts, plus free hair-loss consultations, at any participating salon.
What's Included
Up to five washes & blowouts
Complimentary at any participating salon.
Free hair-loss consultations
With stylists who understand what treatment does to hair, a chemo hair loss coach in your corner.
Awareness in the chair
Salons share information on breast cancer and self-breast exams.
Each visit is a small comfort during a hard season, and a moment to talk about early detection.
More Than Just Hair Care
Feel Your Breast is built on a simple idea: a fresh wash, a good blowout, and a stylist who gets it can make a hard week feel a little more normal.
A tangible way to support women undergoing breast cancer treatment and recovery.
Growing, One Salon at a Time
Feel Your Breast launched in April 2025. Here’s where the program stands today.
Three Simple Steps. One Fresh Start.
Getting your free salon visit takes one phone call.
1
Find a salon
Browse the participating salons below and pick whichever is easiest for you to reach.
2
Mention Feel Your Breast
Call ahead and let the salon know you’re booking through the Feel Your Breast program.
3
Enjoy your visit
Get a complimentary wash, blowout, or hair-loss consultation on your schedule, no strings attached.
The story behind it
Pawsitively 4 Pink × Lauren Howe
How it started
Leominster business owner and breast cancer survivor Lauren Howe, of empHowered PR, joined forces with Fitchburg’s First Class Hair Design and the dedicated nonprofit Pawsitively 4 Pink to launch an empowering new program for breast cancer patients, along with other supporting salons.
As her community leadership project through the North Central Massachusetts Community Leadership Institute (Class of 2025), Lauren built Feel Your Breast to offer a tangible way to support women undergoing treatment and recovery: comfort and a sense of normalcy during a genuinely hard time.
This is what Feel Your BrEaST looks like in real life.
Breast Self-Exam: What to Feel For
The name says it all. Every Feel Your Breast visit is a reminder to check in with your own body. So, during a breast self exam, what to feel for? The National Breast Cancer Foundation suggests noticing:
- New lumps, thickening, or hardened knots in the breast or underarm
- Changes in the size, contour, or shape of the breast
- Dimpling, swelling, or other changes in the skin
- Changes in the nipple, or nipple discharge
Any change you notice should be reported to your healthcare provider right away. A self-exam doesn’t replace mammograms or regular checkups. (Source: National Breast Cancer Foundation)
Who Qualifies
Pawsitively 4 Pink and our partner salons treat every visit with warmth, privacy, and zero judgment. There’s no cost, no paperwork beyond a phone call, and no obligation beyond showing up and being taken care of.
Feel Your Breast is open to anyone who:
- Is currently in breast cancer treatment or recovery
- Would like a complimentary wash, blowout, or hair-loss consultation
- Can visit a participating salon in Fitchburg or Leominster, MA
- Wants to connect with a stylist who understands what treatment does to hair
Our role is simple: to help every woman feel like herself again, one salon visit at a time.
Feel Your Breast: Common Questions
How many visits can I use?
Up to five complimentary washes and blowouts at any participating salon, in whatever combination works best for you.
Is there a cost?
No. Every service covered under Feel Your Breast is complimentary for patients in treatment or recovery.
Which salons can I visit?
Any of our participating salons listed below. Call ahead and mention Feel Your Breast when you book.
Do I need a referral?
No referral needed — just call ahead, mention the program, and let them know what would help you feel most comfortable.
What happens in a free hair-loss consultation?
Your stylist acts as a chemo hair loss coach. In a private, judgment-free conversation, they can talk with you about what to expect and how to deal with chemo hair loss in a way that feels right for you, whether that’s planning a shorter style before treatment, caring for your hair and scalp, or thinking ahead to regrowth.
Do you offer a free haircut for cancer patients?
Feel Your Breast covers complimentary washes, blowouts, and hair-loss consultations. If you’re looking for a free haircut for cancer patients near you, call one of our participating salons, mention Feel Your Breast, and ask what they can offer.
Participating Salons in Fitchburg & Leominster, MA
Searching for the best hair salon for cancer patients near you in North Central Massachusetts? These partner salons welcome Feel Your Breast clients. Call ahead and mention Feel Your Breast when you book.
Beauty Xpressions Hair Salon
📍 557 Lancaster St, Leominster, MA
First Class Hair Design
📍 50 Whalon St, Unit B, Fitchburg, MA 01420
📞 (978) 728-3989
Hey Good Look’n Salon and Spa
📍 370 Summer St, Fitchburg, MA 01420
📞 (978) 345-2308