Hair-razing

DELRAY BEACH — The American Red Cross and Salon Santiago raised $215 in four hours with the first Hair-A-Cane.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. salon owner Antonio Santiago and three more stylists cut left and right at the Veterans Park Gazebo Sunday.
Parents and kids only needed Îgoing back to school' as an excuse to show up. Others with no school in mind showed up anyway.
"I needed it a haircut and this is a good cause," said Delray resident David Williams, 60, who donated $25 to have a simple clean cut.
Also for sale to benefit the Red Cross was the salon's signature hair care line, Sistema Santiago, a soy-based product Santiago and his sister created for all hair types and ethnic backgrounds.
Throughout the event, flyers and brochures on hurricane preparation were also given to the customers. That was the goal from the very beginning: to spread information, said J. B. Hunt, CEO of the American Red Cross Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter.
The idea emerged while Hunt herself was having a haircut at the salon.
"We started talking about what we could do to help," she said.
And who better to entrust that task to than the Santiagos' scissors, which have been in the business since 1976, when Antonio's parents opened the first salon in Key West. With their initial success came another location, on Key West's Duval Street. Five years ago the Santiagos opened their third location, in Fort Lauderdale.
For the stylists, whose work has been featured in fashion magazines such as Glamour and W as well as album covers and movies, Sunday's fundraising was equally satisfying.
"It feels great. You are spending your time off helping people, the community," said Santiago, who has seen the damage caused by a hurricane when some of his relatives in Key West lost everything to Wilma.
Besides the money raised, another good side effect of the haircut event was the volunteers it earned for the organization, said the public relations coordinator, Joseph Hansen, after receiving an inquiry from one of the customers.
On average, the Red Cross spends $1, 000 per family in hurricane response, said Hunt. All donations from the event will go to the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross to increase hurricane preparation awareness.
And unlike hurricanes, Hunt expects at least one Hair-A-Cane to form reliably every year.