What it was like to lose my hair at 23

PART ONE

What it was like to lose my hair

When I was first diagnosed with cancer I was told I had stage one Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which meant I would only have to do four weeks of chemotherapy. Further testing revealed that my cancer had spread and my cancer would now be considered stage two. This meant that my four weeks of chemotherapy turned into twelve weeks. Among many of the consequences of this change in treatment one consequence really stood out: I was pretty much guaranteed to lose my hair. I have always had long hair (okay… I had my hair cut short once when I was like five). So, I was worried about waiting two years to get my hair back. I was worried about what people would think/say and that people at school would treat me differently. I know I shouldn’t care about what people think but I had been used to being healthy my whole life so I just didn’t want to walk down the street and have strangers immediately assume something about my life.

In the end losing my hair was surreal. I didn’t just wake up one day and all of my hair was gone, it took a couple of weeks. Also, I didn’t wake up to a bunch of hair on my pillow (well there was a bit more than usual on my pillow). I mainly noticed my hair loss when I would brush my hair and literally fill my brush with hair. I never knew I had so much hair! It felt sort of strange when I brushed my hair; it was almost like instead of brushing my hair it was sliding out of my scalp. I still remember that feeling. 

                 I think I made a cute bald chick. :)

Stay tuned for parts two and three. If you have any questions please ask I am very open about this chapter in my life.