Losing your hair sucks. I’m not going to sugar coat it, it’s awful. As if feeling like complete crap from chemo isn’t bad enough, having your hair fall out in chunks all over your floor and in your hands is not a fun feeling. I give major credit to all of the women out there who immediately shaved their heads after diagnosis. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and I’m glad I didn’t. Even though it was awful, and I waited until the last minute when I had nothing left, it helped me “experience”‘ and take in my diagnosis more. It made it more real, and made me feel more human. Even though it was hard, and I received daily reminders clump by clump of hair loss, that I was fighting a huge battle, in a sense, it made me feel brave. It made me feel like I’m actually overcoming a major life change, and I will be stronger than anyone I know after this. Even though it’s just hair, it made me feel like when all of this is over, I can truly take on the world. My goal was to be like Samantha from Sex and the City, and to rock the crap out of Cancer, which is exactly what I am doing.
I remember hair loss was my main concern before I was discharged from the hospital. “Is my hair going to fall out and when?” (Not logical concerns like what if I get an infection and end up in the hospital? What if I get Lung Disease or Heart Disease from the Bleomycin? What about my fertility? I’m pushing 30 over here doc) I actually even tried convincing the on call Oncologist who discharged me, that I wasn’t going to lose my hair. He thought I was nuts. It’s funny because during chemo, I had one of my friends chop off my hair into a cute little bob. A week later I went to my Hematologist appointment, my hair looked SO good, and I felt like I looked amazing for a cancer patient. I even ran into one of my respiratory techs from the ICU, and he was shocked at how good I looked. But my doc just looked at me asking if I lost any hair yet. I said no. He knew it was coming, because when I got home, that’s when it started falling out, strand by strand, then in chunks.
Long, curly weave!
It’s hard. Very freaking hard. In my opinion, I’ll take the nausea, the pain, the night sweats, the restless nights, the anxiety, over losing my hair. Heck, I’ve had hair extensions my entire life. My friend Melissa, a fellow Lymphoma survivor, kept telling me that I would have fun with short wigs and head scarves. At the time, I thought to myself “this girl is out of her damn mind, there’s no way I’m going to have fun wearing a wig and being bald.” News flash! After two months and three cycles of chemo, I realized wigging out rocks! You just have to find some good wigs. A man named Steve in South Miami (www.steveswigs.com) saved my life in this aspect and helped me regain all confidence. He specializes in wigs for chemotherapy patients and he’s the absolute bomb! He knew what worked for me within 2 minutes of seeing me. Depending on your insurance, you can also submit this as a medical expense, get an Rx from your provider, and your insurance may pay for it..so get at least one good one and contact your insurance. They will be a few hundred dollars.
Short hair
The key with finding a good wig is to look for “full lace” ones, so that they look natural. Mine are all Synthetic, so don’t make someone try to sell you a human hair one for $4500, they look and feel the exact same. You can’t tell that I have no hair with any of mine. I struggled with even putting my first wig on initially, because I was so worried about what other people would think about me, and it scared me. Now I don’t give a crap, because no one can even tell! I rock the sh*t out of all of my wigs. And it’s SO fun being able to change your look every day. Just go with it! And you can have fun with head scarves too. So many cute styles to wear! Plus, you don’t have to spend hours fixing your hair every day. And sorry to all of my girlfriends out there, but my wigs even look better than their real hair! Ha!
Long, straight wig
Plus, Kylie Jenner rocks wigs daily and looks fabulous, which I recently discovered. It might take some time, but once you find a good wig or two, you will be golden, and you will have fun with it. Trust me on this one! This will help you get through chemo. When you look good, you feel good, and once you find your weaves, you will look amazing and be on the verge of kicking cancer in the booty!
Short hair with bangs and head scarf
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