Fighting Cancer with Manicures and Merlot

Customers stood two-deep Monday night at the reception desk of .

Inside, every station was buzzing as stylists and technicians combed, teased and cut hair, shaped their clients' nails, or gave pedicures and facials.

Customers sipping wine and munching appetizers moved carefully past vendors’ tables loaded with clothing, jewelry and boutique items.

It could have been a night before an important holiday when the salon was jammed with every woman in Buffalo Grove who had to look beautiful for a special day.

But it wasn't. The local styling salon was putting on the fifth annual Manicures and Merlot Night, a fundraiser to benefit the and the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

 “We raised over $4,000 last year,” said owner Marilyn Wagner, standing near in the crowded reception area of the salon. “We’re hoping to do better this year.”

The salon offered manicures, pedicures and facials and massages; profits from those services, as well as 20 percent of proceeds from vendors, will be turned over to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Wagner said she started the fundraiser and the Lady Lifesavers team because her mother died from breast cancer.

“Everybody on the team has some connection, a friend, a relative, to breast cancer,” she said. “It touches everyone."