Inclusive Crowns brings free medical wigs to Vallejo

VALLEJO – In June 2022, Morgan Moore, a hair stylist and cosmetologist who worked in a high end salon in Oakland, realized she wanted to feel more purpose in her life. While she was on maternity leave she envisioned a business: creating medical wigs paid by insurance for women who had lost their hair due to cancer treatments or alopecia.

Moore shared her plan with her sister, Leeina Hoff, a nurse practitioner who specializes in radiation oncology. Hoff knew its importance for the self-esteem of women who lose their hair during cancer treatment.

 “When you lose a breast they give you a prosthesis,” Hoff said, “but not all insurance companies or medical providers recognize that losing your hair takes a toll on your mental health. I know it’s not life threatening, but if you want to feel more like yourself you should be empowered to do so.”

The sisters launched Morgan & Moore, located at 301 Georgia St. in downtown Vallejo, in late 2022. The business grew quickly, but they soon realized some insurers, including Medi-Cal and Medicare, didn’t cover the medical wigs. If a woman didn’t have the means to pay for a medical wig privately, she couldn’t get it. 

Not wanting to leave anyone behind, in December 2024 the sisters launched their nonprofit Inclusive Crowns.

Inclusive Crowns offers medical wigs to women who can’t afford them at 50% of their regular price and fundraises to cover the other 50%. Since the nonprofit launched, it has already provided medical wigs, also called cranial prostheses, to three women, and it’s now working on a wig for a child who had brain surgery and had to shave her head.

One of those women was Kayla B., a mother of five on Medi-Cal who had suffered from alopecia areata on and off since she was 10 years old. Sometimes she could cover her bald spots with her thick hair, but due to hormonal changes during her last pregnancy, Kayla was left completely bald. 

After researching cranial prostheses, Kayla found Morgan & Moore. She felt drawn to the sisters, but she couldn’t afford their services. Hoff and Moore reached out to Kayla a few times, telling her that they didn’t want her to forget about them.

Finally they called Kayla and told her they had launched Inclusive Crowns. They offered to create a cranial prosthesis for her free of charge. 

“I met them in person and they were so comforting and welcoming,” Kayla said. “It was the first time I took my beanie off and exposed my bald head to anyone. And they said, ‘Do you know how beautiful you are?’ They made me feel so secure.”

Kayla gave the sisters selfies she had taken when she had hair, and they created a cranial prosthesis that matched her natural hair exactly. She was so happy, and so grateful for the support and comfort the sisters offered her throughout the whole process, that she has now become an advocate for their nonprofit.

Both Inclusive Crowns and Morgan & Moore have filled a crucial gap. “Most medical wigs offer straight hair, not curly, kinky, coily hair,” Hoff said, “so we filled the niche for every texture of hair.” They use only high quality, natural, ethically sourced hair, Hoff added. 

Their medical wigs, which cost an average of $4,000, last three or more years. The cap they use is hypoallergenic and made to wear without glue. They are currently working on a 3-D mold that has silicone gripping so the wig doesn’t slip and provides a custom fit for every client. They expect to patent it.

Empowering young women through training

Inclusive Crowns does more than provide free medical wigs. The sisters have created a program to train young women in Solano County to make medical wigs for women of different texture hair. “Our goal is to manufacture these units in America,” Hoff said. 

Fortune Business Insights valued the global hair wig market at $2.59 billion in 2024 and Cognitive Market Research estimates the global medical wig market will compound 8% yearly until 2030, so it’s a business with room to grow.

“What we envision is empowering women to do what we’re doing, helping the community, because there’s a niche need for it and a lot of unemployment,” Hoff said. “You don’t need a cosmetology license to install a wig, so someone can go straight from high school to training and have a business.”

Hoff wants to train women in Vallejo to help build the local economy, and offer childcare during classes so single mothers can take advantage of them. So far they have the instructor, the training program and a space in the office of another nonprofit, 4th Second, ready to go. They need donations and sponsorships to pay the trainers and buy equipment.

Advocating for inclusion and coverage

Moore and Hoff also advocate for medical wigs to be covered by all insurance. As legislative liaisons for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, they joined a task force with doctors, dermatologists and others and created language for state Assemblymember Mark Berman to introduce AB 2668, which would have required insurers to pay for medical wigs.

“We went to the Capitol,” Hoff explained. “We lobbied for it. It got through the health part of the review, but it didn’t pass the fiscal.”

At the national level, they are advocating for HR 4034, which would make medically necessary cranial prostheses covered durable medical equipment under the Medicare program. If that law passes, they believe other insurers will follow suit.

“We love what we are doing,” Hoff said. “We believe this is a ministry for us. It’s so much more than hair. Many tears are shed here, prayer is said here, lives are really changed. This place is a healing space.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the price of the medical wigs.