Keeping a Promise - Celebrating New Yorkers who make a difference.

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(Free-Press-Release.com) March 3, 2011 -- When Melissa Gonzalez was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma three years ago, her advocates at the nonprofit Cancer Care told her there was someone she need to see. I wasn't a doctor or a nurse or a medical researcher. It was society hairdresser Rodolfo Valentin.

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Keeping a Promise - Celebrating New Yorkers who make a difference.

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The Madison Avenue hair stylist, a favorite with the ladies who lunch, had a program to provide top quality, custom made hairpieces for lower-income women who were about to undergo chemotherapy or radiation. And these were no ordinary wigs. They were made from real human hair, bought off young mountain girls in Europe, each strand expertly colored and woven into a polyurethane cap perfectly molded to the patient's skull.

It does not look like a wig, it does not feel like a wig, said Gonzalez, 30, an accountant from Huntington, L.I., who is now in remission. "I wore it to my 10-year high school reunion and my best friend's wedding and no one knew." " I am not vain but you do not realize how important it is until you are looking in the mirror and see yourself bald."

Rodolfo Valentin charges his well-heeled but follicle-challenged clients over $ 4,000 or more for such a "hair prosthetic," but Gonzalez and scores of other cancer patients who cannot afford those lofty prices did not have to pay a dime. That is because of a promise the coiffeur made to his mother, Sofia, years ago when she was dying of breast cancer, her glamorous platinum locks destroyed by radiation. "She said, Rodolfo, you have to promise me you will create the perfect hairpiece for people with cancer," Valentin said: " I promise you I will dedicate my life to this."

Rodolfo Valentin, a towering figure with shoulder length, jet-black hair and flair for dramatic clothing, was born in Buenos Aires and quit school to become a hairdresser at the age of 17. He apprenticed with top Argentine stylist and then went to work for the famed Alexandre de Paris, who tamed Jackie Kennedy's tresses. While he was making a name for himself in Europe, he got the call that his mother was sick and he flew home to be with her as she went through surgery and radiation. "My mother was a very beautiful woman. She looked like a movie star", he said.

"One day she was very depressed and Rodolfo told her to do not be depressed, they can reconstruct the breasts," to what she answered that "it is not my breast, it is my hair. My friend reminds me every morning I have cancer."...the "friend" was the mirror. Rodolfo offered to make a hairpiece for his mother, and it took two months to produce his first model. After his mother died, he began trying to improve on the prototype, consulting French toupee makers and searching out hair suppliers.

When he moved to the United states two decades ago, opening a salon in Long Island, he took his promise to his mother with him. Limousines dropped off socialites at his opulent spa, Long Island Beauty Center, but it was cancer patients who got the real VIP treatment. Women who never could have afforded a $ 350 haircut by Valentin received discounted or free hair pieces before chemo made them bald.

Five years ago, Rodolfo Valentin formalized his charity by pledging to give one prosthetic away each month to a cancer patient who earn less than $ 30,000 a year. He is also campaigning to get insurance companies to cover more of the cost of prosthetics for cancer patients and gives a discount to any woman who comes in with a copy of a current mammogram. Most of his cancer clients are referred to him by oncologists who have heard about his Sofia's hair for health foundation, although survivors also spread the word.

When Lauren Brendler's mother, Judy, was diagnosed with lung cancer, a friend told the family about Rodolfo Valentin and she immediately made an appointment at his Long Island location. From the minute she walked in the door, he maintained her pride, Brendler said. He took her to a private room, he did whatever he could to make her feel good...The results were amazing, she said. No one knew she was wearing a wig. She kept her sickness a secret. At my son's bar mitzvah, she looked like she did at my wedding. After their mother's death, Brendler and her sister donated the prothetics they had bought so someone of lesser means could benefit from them. Brendler niece was so touched by Rodolfo compassion for the cancer-stricken that she grew out her hair for two years so he could use it in his program. She said that it was the least they could do for a man who had shown her mother, and so many others such kindness during their toughest time. His heart is as tall as he is! she said.

Even though his generosity was born purely out of love, Rodolfo Valentin added that it has helped him prosper. His quest to fulfill his mother's dying wish and craft the perfect wig made him one of the premier creators of hair pieces, extensions and accessories. Whenever a new patient comes through the door of his salons, he feels Sofia his mother, smiling down on him. She is here with me...her spirit is here.

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