Christine Heinen from Tampa, Fla. began a career in design in 1989. She worked as a creative director for a company that made fantasy retail displays out of Styrofoam. "It was my dream job, but I didn't have my dream boss," she says. "I wanted my own thing. I knew that starting a business would be tough, but it seemed the only way I would ever have stability in a creative field."

Heinen decided to design hats. She quit her day job and moved into a cheap artist's apartment on the shadier side of town and got to work on her plans. Lacking the business training that she felt she needed to make her company a success, she put herself on a steady diet of business books. Soon, the paint-chipped walls of her new apartment were covered with all sorts of wild and funky hats.

A Hip Idea
While chatting one day with a friend, Heinen discovered her niche. Heinen's friend was recalling the time when she used to wear a lot of hats after her chemotherapy treatments. The friend had lost her hair and told Heinen that she found wigs too hot and itchy; she wore all sorts of hats instead. Then the friend told her that she had wished for a hat with hair. Heinen knew she had to change gears.

"It was like a giant neon sign hit me over the head and read: Create and sell the most comfortable and hip looking hats with hair!" she says.

Heinen set to work right away, experimenting with putting hair in her own hats. To get the inside scoop on what women with cancer wanted, she volunteered to work at Moffit Cancer Center. It was there that Heinen got just the break she needed. The Childhood Leukemia Foundation (CLF) of Brick New Jersey just happened to call one day while Heinen was working, asking if anyone knew who was making hats with hair for children.

Heinen created three cute hats with hair for girls and shipped them off to CLF. The children loved them, and soon, CLF was ordering more. Heinen began perfecting her designs, creating a ponytail with bangs that can be worn under a ball-cap and a swim topper with hair that sprouted from the top. Her designs were unique – and amazing.

Making a Difference
Heinen recalls a recent phone conversation that she had with a mother who just discovered that her child had cancer. "She wanted me to describe every one of my products over the phone," says Heinen. "I suggested that I send her a catalog that would explain everything."

The woman asked if Heinen could just talk with her about it for a while. Realizing that this mother wanted to talk about her daughter's hair loss, Heinen stayed on the line with her. "The conversation was more than a discussion about hair color or length," she says. "It was about the one small thing this mother could do to help control the disease that was afflicting her child."

Heinen takes pride in all of her creations, always trying to get the highlights just right or ensuring that the item is tight enough so it doesn't slip off in the pool. She worries about getting the hats done in time for that one child to go to Disney.

"People tell me what a great job I do and what a difference it makes to their child or to them," says Heinen. "They send me pictures of themselves in their hats and hair, and I know it's all worth while."

Recently, Heinen introduced Hip Hats to women with alopecia, an autoimmune skin disease that results in the loss of hair on the scalp and elsewhere on the body. The hats were exhibited at the annual conference for The National Alopecia Areata Foundation this past summer. For women with this disease, Hip Hats are a welcome addition to their wardrobe of headwear.

"One thing I want for the future is to do more of my own fund-raising," says Heinen. "I want every woman or child with a financial need to be able to get a Hip Hat free of charge."

The CLF has been donating them to children with cancer all over the country. Teenagers love them because they don't have to wear a wig. Parents have seen their children transformed just by donning their new hat and hair.

Hope in a Hat
Heinen has customers call her regularly to tell her how the hats have transformed their child into a happy, active and confident person – not just someone who is suffering from a disease.

She remembers hearing from a mother of a 10-year-old girl diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia. The child had been out of school for several months and was anxious about returning to her fifth grade classroom without hair. The wigs that the girl tried bothered her skin and were itchy and loose on her. The girl's mother said it broke her heart to see how frightened her child was that her wig would fall off during class.

Just after returning to class, the hip hat arrived in the mail, and the little girl danced. She actually waltzed around the living room, finishing the dance off with a deep bow, and the hair stayed on. The mother recounted to Heinen how thrilled she was that her child, who was at the time still facing two more years of treatment, would be able to go out in public with confidence.

It's the stories of hope that remind Heinen that what she is doing is changing lives – one at a time.

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