Monday, September 25, 2017

Cancer and Hair Loss Is More Than Physical

Losing their hair is one more way that cancer makes patients feel they've lost control over their bodies. It's not just physical, it's personal. Here are some tips for what to say.

The dreaded moment in this journey with recurrent ovarian cancer has arrived when I must concede that my hair is falling out again. Something must be done about it. The Taxol is working; the hats aren’t. I don’t know exactly what it is about hair that is so fraught with emotion. I don’t like to speak for other cancer patients, but it seems like it’s another way that cancer has wrested control of our bodies from us – even from women who typically wear their hair short.

For me, the hair issue has a long history that goes back to my childhood and growing up in the 60s when everyone had long, straight hair. I had short, curly, frizzy hair. I wanted straight hair as badly as I wanted my own car, a boyfriend and to be independent.

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