SUMTER, S.C. — Braiding for breast cancer awareness is a challenge that one Sumter woman has been taking on for the last three years, styling her clients’ hair in a way that highlights the pink ribbon.
“Okay, hair would be a good way. Everybody sees the hair,” Sumter resident Connie Butler remembers thinking when she was brainstorming ways to spread awareness about breast cancer.
“My mom had breast cancer,” Butler shares. “She passed away a few years ago from breast cancer.”
To honor her mother and try to encourage women to get regular screenings, Butler called up a family friend who had been braiding hair for years.
“She’s always had a great talent,” Butler explains about her friend, who she likens to a niece. “When she was 13, she would braid my hair and I'd get stopped in the streets asking to get pictures of my hair because she was doing such a great job.”
“Every day I get to make somebody happy,” Iyeshia Scott, the owner and operator of TruRoots Braids, smiles. “[Butler] called me and she just was like, ‘I have a challenge for you. I know it might be hard, but I don't want you to tell me no, because I think you could do it.’ And she was like, ‘I want you to do something with breast cancer.”
Scott posted a picture of the design online. It went viral, which Scott hopes will spread hte idea baout getting regular screenings to promote early detection in women.
“It's rewarding,” Scott says. “I feel like it’s for a purpose.”
“I'm just glad that it's, like she said, went viral and is able to bring awareness to breast cancer,” Butler adds.
Now, it’s an annual tradition for Butler.
“Each time I try to do the pink ribbon, it might be in a different location on the head, but it's different every time,” Scott details.
This year marks the third design that she’s gotten during the month of October.
“I'm just happy for the support towards breast cancer. And I'm just happy that I can be the person to help bring on awareness,” Butler says.
Butler says she is able to wear the hairstyle for about two months, spreading awareness even past October. Looking at the future, Butler tells me she plans to come back well into the future.
“As long as [Scott’s] going do it, I'm going to sit right here,” Butler smiles.