CRANSTON — It’s hard to slow Barbara Manni down.

The 41-year-old mother of two has always thrown herself into everything she does –– whether it’s golfing competitively or making crepe-paper kelp and hanging dangling seahorses at the Alpine Country Club for one of her children’s school dances.

“Stick near me, I rub off on people,” she says of her normally upbeat personality.

It wasn’t out of character, therefore, for Manni to convince herself that nothing was really wrong — and proceed with a family vacation to Aruba last fall — after she found a lump in her breast.

When she got back, tests proved her wrong, and not long before Christmas she found out she had cancer. For the sake of the family, she soldiered on with all the baking and decorating that usually marks her favorite holiday. But shortly after the new year, she underwent surgery and started chemotherapy.

She was warned at the outset of the treatment that she would likely lose her trademark long, silky blond hair. When she heard that, she said, it was one of the few times she cried.

LITTLE MORE than three weeks into chemo, the hair loss had caused Manni to shave her head and to start the frustrating hunt for a way to look good in public.

Nothing –– not even a costly (but itchy) wig –– was suitable, she said, so she called her sister, Lauren Paige, in Sturbridge, Mass., and said, “Teach me to sew.”

The two set out to come up with a head covering that would be as fun as it would be functional.

“I’m sorry — I’m not a biker-style girl,” Manni said of her failed attempts to wear a traditional bandanna. “And they were too small anyway.

“Also, I’m just too young to be walking around in a turban.”

Instead, she and Paige came up with oversized triangular kerchiefs in all sorts of colorful prints, trimmed with sparkling beads or sequins. Manni, who admits to liking a little pizzazz in her wardrobe, ended up with a rainbow of custom kerchiefs that matched every outfit and holiday as she continued in treatment. It wasn’t long, she said, before nurses, doctors and other patients started asking where they could buy the fun head wraps.

Thus KareChiefs, Manni and Paige’s new company, was born. They decided to make it official toward the end of the summer, but were not afforded the luxury of a slow start. In September, Manni was approached by representatives of the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation and asked if she could have an ample supply of the KareChiefs available to sell at the foundation’s third annual “Flames of Hope” WaterFire celebration on Oct. 11.

That mission accomplished, the two sisters are now preparing their Web site, www.karechiefs.com, to handle online ordering.

Also, the scarves will be part of the Gloria Gemma Foundation’s holiday fashion show, which will be held at 6 p.m. tonight at the Kirkbrae Country Club in Lincoln.

Not just a designer that night, Manni will also be on the runway.

“Do you believe it? Now I’m a model,” she said, ruffling her short hair that has come back darker and with curls.

MANNI WAS RECENTLY declared cancer-free and said she feels great. Married to lawyer Joseph Manni, she said that she has not yet returned to her part-time job as a medical secretary but is concentrating on her fledgling business and her family with daughter, Cassie, 12, and son, Joe, 14.

Manni said the KareChiefs have several features that make them special, and are particularly suitable for people who have lost their hair to chemotherapy or a disease such as alopecia. They’re reversible for maximum versatility, she said, and all the fabrics are extra soft because often the scalp becomes sore and sensitive.

They are also made much larger than a traditional bandanna because, Manni says, “you discover how long your neck is once you lose your hair.” The fabrics range from subdued small patterns to bold animal prints, and each is finished with beadwork or other trim.

Manni said she and Paige are finding out that many people who don’t need them as head coverings are buying them as neck scarves to perk up their everyday outfits. But no matter how the company grows, she said she will always give a share of the profits to cancer-related research foundations and charities, because that’s how it all started.

“The most important thing,” she said, “is to give women who are going through a really hard time something that helps them feel as special and as pretty as they truly are.”

Manni and Paige will make custom wraps and take orders by phone at (401) 480-9205. A selection of the scarves is also available at the Gloria Gemma Cotton Candy Boutique, 1455 Mineral Spring Ave., North Providence.

bpoliche@projo.com