Losing my hair to chemo
❤️🩹 TL;DR: the journey of donating my long hair, rocking a bob, and embracing boldness
As a feminist, I’ve spent the last few years accepting that the more natural we are, the more we can showcase our true beauty. I stopped wearing makeup and coloring my hair. Even when some grey hairs appeared, I made the decision to let it be. We’re beautiful just the way we are. At any age. Actually, aging is a beautiful thing.
So the thought of losing my hair shouldn’t be too bad, right? Well, let me tell you it was tough.
My hair was part of my self-perceived identity. I couldn’t imagine how to be me without my long hair. Nor how to face the world looking like a cancer patient.
Well, hair style is a social construct very much attached to culture. As a westerner, I’m used to seeing short hair in men and long hair in women. So of course it’s a shock, as a western woman, to be bold. But I’m constantly reminding myself to see beyond my own backyard. For the Maasai, for instance, it’s exactly the other way around. Women show proudly their beautiful heads, while the long hair is reserved for the warriors.
I was offered a wig, but I think they’re not for me. I would never judge others that wear them, it is a very personal journey after all, but wearing one I’d feel like I had something to hide, like I’m trying to embrace society’s standards of beauty instead of creating my own.
When I started chemo I cut my hair into a short bob to be able to donate my long hair to an NGO that makes wigs for girls fighting cancer. Their journey is much harder than mine, so I think it was the best thing I could have done.
Since I knew it wouldn’t last long, I dyed it pink as a statement, because breast cancer. Within two weeks so much hair was falling that I decided to shave it completely. It was a moment full of emotions. I laughed at the situation, I cried for what I was losing, and I loved my partner more than ever for being there for me, in the toughest of times.
Now I’m focusing on wearing earrings from around the world to pull off the look. I can’t go anywhere, so I might as well wear pieces I collected from different corners of earth, right?
Losing my hair to chemo
❤️🩹 TL;DR: the journey of donating my long hair, rocking a bob, and embracing boldness
As a feminist, I’ve spent the last few years accepting that the more natural we are, the more we can showcase our true beauty. I stopped wearing makeup and coloring my hair. Even when some grey hairs appeared, I made the decision to let it be. We’re beautiful just the way we are. At any age. Actually, aging is a beautiful thing.
So the thought of losing my hair shouldn’t be too bad, right? Well, let me tell you it was tough.
My hair was part of my self-perceived identity. I couldn’t imagine how to be me without my long hair. Nor how to face the world looking like a cancer patient.
Well, hair style is a social construct very much attached to culture. As a westerner, I’m used to seeing short hair in men and long hair in women. So of course it’s a shock, as a western woman, to be bold. But I’m constantly reminding myself to see beyond my own backyard. For the Maasai, for instance, it’s exactly the other way around. Women show proudly their beautiful heads, while the long hair is reserved for the warriors.
I was offered a wig, but I think they’re not for me. I would never judge others that wear them, it is a very personal journey after all, but wearing one I’d feel like I had something to hide, like I’m trying to embrace society’s standards of beauty instead of creating my own.
When I started chemo I cut my hair into a short bob to be able to donate my long hair to an NGO that makes wigs for girls fighting cancer. Their journey is much harder than mine, so I think it was the best thing I could have done.
Since I knew it wouldn’t last long, I dyed it pink as a statement, because breast cancer. Within two weeks so much hair was falling that I decided to shave it completely. It was a moment full of emotions. I laughed at the situation, I cried for what I was losing, and I loved my partner more than ever for being there for me, in the toughest of times.
Now I’m focusing on wearing earrings from around the world to pull off the look. I can’t go anywhere, so I might as well wear pieces I collected from different corners of earth, right?