I’m over the moon to finally be a wig free member of society again.  While I grew to enjoy the ease of throwing on a wig, quickly each morning, I’m now appreciative to feel the wind blowing through my hair once again.  Certainly, an improvement to alternately fearing my wig may blow away in a gust of wind… definitely a downfall when living in the Windy City!

It was this time last year, my hair began to fall out from chemo.  It was in the shower, the morning of my second treatment when I first began to notice large clumps of it coming out.  I cried like a baby in the shower that morning… I had tried to prepare myself mentally, I knew it was inevitably going to happen, but the reality of it broke my heart.

I found it torturous waking each morning to a pillow covered in hair, pulling long strands of it from my shirt all day long & I spent the majority of my shower time attempting to block the clumps of long hair from going down the drain… it was defeating, heart breaking & after several days of slow torture I opted to shave it all off.  At first my husband didn’t feel this was a necessary step & that I was over reacting.  Finally, in attempt to prove his point, he ran his fingers through my hair to show me it wasn’t as bad as I was making it out to be.  His hand was so full of hair, he turned quickly so our kids wouldn’t see & agreed it was definitely time.

We made it a family event since I didn’t want my kids to be scared to suddenly see their mom with absolutely no hair… it scared me, I can’t begin to imagine their thought process at the ages of just two & four. They had fun shaving mom’s head & my son even yelled, “I love it! I love it!”  I myself, felt empowered; I had taken the control back.

My final chemo treatment was on July 18th, 2016.  It felt like forever for the hair to start coming back initially.  At first it grew in like peach fuzz, light in color & a super soft fuzzy texture.  Eventually it got very curly, you really cant see just how curly it really is in pictures.  But thanks to the curls my hair basically stuck straight out until there was enough length to weigh it back down, so I wore wigs far longer than I probably needed to.  Now it’s baby soft, super thick & crazy curly.  I’m thinking humidity will not be my friend this summer, but it’s better than no hair so I will gladly take it!  My hair growth pictures below, begin with an extremely bald me on July 22nd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a lot of fun with wigs in the meantime & as I do with most things I enjoy, I probably went a bit overboard with a grand total of eight different wigs in the end.  I embraced the variety factor & opted to change it up while I could so easily.  I found several inexpensive wigs on amazon & some higher quality from wigs.com that I paid a bit more for.  I watched for sales & googled for coupon codes to save where I could.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re experiencing chemo hair loss yourself, remember it’s only temporary.  And as defeating as it might feel at first, in the end it can truly be empowering.  Check out my other related posts:

Tips to Help Cope with Chemo Hair Loss

Wig Tutorial for Beginners

Losing My Hair to Chemo