The Crown Within: A Community Built Around Bloom
Editor Jasmine McBride reports on Flow Foundation's "The Crown Within" event at The Neu Neu in Minneapolis, a free gathering for women navigating alopecia and medical hair loss themed "Bloom." Founders Getinet Alemu and Milka Fisiha expanded this year's focus beyond cancer-related hair loss to fully include alopecia, while Pfizer's alopecia areata team publicly committed corporate support after finding few organizations doing similar work. Attendees including Shaniqua "Ms. Neeq" Edwards shared personal stories of living with hair loss since childhood, and Flow Foundation continues raising funds for custom wigs for the roughly 15 women on its waiting list.
Hair can often tell a woman’s story, but for many women navigating medical hair loss, that journey can feel isolating. On Saturday, Sept. 19, local nonprofit Flow Foundation set out to change that narrative, hosting The Crown Within, a free community event at The Neu Neu in Minneapolis designed to empower women experiencing alopecia and hair loss from medical treatments.
Flow Foundation was founded two years ago by Getinet Alemu and his wife, Milka Fisiha, after watching close family members navigate the emotional and physical toll of hair loss. The organization provides personalized, high-quality wigs with custom color and texture matching, a detail Fisiha said is often overlooked for Black and Brown women in standard hair replacement options.
This year’s gathering carried the theme “Bloom.” Fisiha told attendees the organization wanted the day to be a space where guests could show up as themselves, whether that meant wearing something on their crown or not.
“We work with anyone that’s experiencing hair loss, and that could be due to alopecia, cancer, or any other medical health condition,” Fisiha said. “We want to make sure that people can come into the space as they are.”
Fisiha said the foundation has shifted its focus year to year. Last year’s event centered on cancer-related hair loss; this year the team wanted to make sure alopecia itself received full attention.
“Cancer has touched everybody in one way or shape or form,” Fisiha said. “We really wanted to make sure that we support anyone that’s experiencing cancer and medical hair loss as well. This is a space for everybody.”
Corporate support finds a gap in the advocacy landscape
Pfizer, one of the event’s sponsors, also sent a representative from its alopecia areata team to address attendees. The team, formed within the last eight months, includes eight members working nationally to invest in the alopecia areata community, the representative said.
Speaker Vibrant described searching for advocacy groups doing similar work and coming up largely empty outside of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. “There are not a lot of groups that are doing what the Flow Foundation is doing,” she told the crowd, drawing applause. She said she brought the discovery to her vice president and asked for the company’s support for Flow Foundation’s work in 2026 and beyond.
“This type of engagement is not widely seen in the alopecia areata community,” she said. “You guys have Pfizer’s commitment.”
A personal journey, shared publicly
Shaniqua Edwards known as “Ms. Neeq” shared her own story of living with alopecia, which she said began in fifth grade before she even had a name for what was happening to her.
She recalled wearing a scarf to school and a classmate trying to pull it off during math class, and a friend shielding her head until she could retrieve it. “Another core memory for me on this journey,” she said, adding that at the time she still didn’t understand why she had alopecia or where it came from.
She told the room that having no hair “shouldn’t be a shameful thing that makes us hide behind wigs,” and that self-worth shouldn’t hinge on wearing a wig or having hair at all. Coming to terms with hair loss, she said, allows every hairstyle to be worn with confidence.
“Walk in and be proud of who you are, and walk in that self-admiration,” she said.
Brandon Storman, who works directly with people navigating hair loss, encouraged attendees to move at their own pace regardless of whether they pursue treatment. “It’s good to meet people where they’re at, whether or not they want to get treatment, whether or not they don’t want to get treatment,” she said, inviting attendees to connect with her after the event.
For many in the room, the day’s significance came simply from being among others who understood the experience. Vibrant said seeing a full community show up, rather than facing hair loss alone, was deeply affirming.
“We know there’s other people, but it’s like we’re like it’s just us,” she said. “To see that we have a community and people that support us and support Flow, it just makes me really happy and just warms my heart.”
At the event, Flow Foundation also continued its push to fund custom wigs for the roughly 15 women on its waiting list, part of its broader mission to ensure every woman waiting for her crown receives one.
Flow Foundation has a fundraiser event coming up on Oct. 17 at Kendra Scott in Rosedale from 2 to 4 p.m. Twenty percent of all sales will support Flow Foundation’s Wig Program. For more information on Flow Foundation, visit www.flowhair.org/.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.