Claudia Seggel, the founder of Claudia's Cool Hats -- hats and wigs all in one, for women coping with hair loss from chemotherapy. Seggel underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer finishing in April 2010.(J. Gwendolynne Berry/The Palm Beach Post)

"I wasn’t prepared for how I really would feel about myself, looking at myself in the mirror, getting ready to go out and trying to put makeup on," Seggel said.

The former CPA had bought two wigs, but in the Florida heat, coupled with chemo-induced hot flashes, she couldn’t stand to wear them for more than a half-hour.

"An additional physical discomfort is the last thing you need" during cancer treatment, said Seggel. "And I was not going to do the turban, scarf thing."

So last fall, Seggel used her retirement savings to launch a business based on the premise that when you look better, you feel better.

Claudia’s CoolHats is an extensive line of straw sun hats, baseball caps and wool fedoras outfitted with human hair. The locks come in 13 shades, from baby blond to gray, and a variety of styles and lengths.

CoolHats are designed to give the illusion that the wearer has a full head of hair underneath the hat, which is actually lined in a non-itchy cotton with a baby-soft fleece band.

"It needed to be soft inside, and it needed to look pretty," said Seggel, who is 54. "You don’t have to wear that itchy, hot wig all the time or hide in your house."

The hats start at $95 and are sold online at ClaudiasCoolHats.com, but Seggel hopes to eventually stock them in hospital gift stores nationwide, and she’s partnering with the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

Claudia Seggel's CoolHats help by keeping heads cool, yet fashionable. (J. Gwendolynne Berry / Palm Beach Post)

The initial idea for Claudia’s CoolHats sprouted when Seggel visited a Delray Beach beauty-supply store in search of shampoo and nail polish.

"I didn’t realize (the store) was a warehouse of hair and hair extensions. It was like a Home Depot of hair."

Seggel bought a few strips of human hair and began to experiment with sewing them into hats.

"It was trial and error, trial and error, trial and error," she said.

"I was trying to figure out whether I should use glue, use a hot gun, if I should sew it in by hand."

Seggel has sewn since she was 10 years old, and she’d always had an artistic streak.

"But I never pursued that side of my brain professionally until now," she said.

She handles all aspects of her business herself, from design to marketing to bookkeeping, but the biggest challenge she’s faced is "people don’t get the concept really," she said.

"People who haven’t gone through it don’t understand how horrible it is" to lose your hair.

After discovering a quick fix for her own hair loss, Seggel said she was driven to channel her energies into something positive.

"I couldn’t cure cancer, I wasn’t wealthy enough to donate a lot of money to organizations that could find a cure, and I wasn’t physically strong enough to walk and march all over town," she said.

"So I took what I thought was a fabulous idea, an item that certainly helped me and I knew would help others, and drove myself into it hook, line and sinker."

She just wants those who are battling cancer to feel more confident about their appearance "because that is a huge part of us and our lives."