My Hair Is Growing In Softer

I hope it also gets thicker

My hair when I was 32, prior to cancer and chemo

I’ve lost my hair several times in the last 18 years. The first time was also the first time I had cancer. I was in my 30s and was diagnosed with a super aggressive type of breast cancer — inflammatory breast disease. At the time the prognosis was not good.

I was told I had 6 months to live. I looked up the research and according to the medical journals of the time, 85% of those diagnosed died within 18 months.

So losing my hair during chemo was not that big a deal to me, though it deeply hurt my husband. It brought home to him in a very visible way that he might lose me.

Prior to chemo, my hair was really thick, shiny, and had a natural wave. I didn’t have any white hair, as you can see from the photograph.

After chemo?

My hair grew in thinner, frizzier, and with shades of gray thrown in.

More recently, in April of 2021, I was diagnosed with metastatic brain cancer.

During radiation therapy, I lost some hair but not all of it. It started to grow in really well, actually thicker than it had been.

But then came chemo…

And I lost my hair for the third time.