Barb's story - On losing one?s hair

"On the day my hair all came out I was in the shower. It just came out in clumps and I wasn't sure what to do with it and I couldn't get it off my hands and body."

This was written as email on the B-mail mailing list to a breast cancer patient who undergoing chemotherapy and losing her hair.

I remember the head soreness just before the hair falling out as rather traumatic. On the day my hair all came out I was in the shower. It just came out in clumps and I wasn't sure what to do with it and I couldn't get it off my hands and body. When I got out, the shower looked like a hairy booth and I was nearly bald. My 12 year old son came in to the bedroom looking for me and as he passed he looked in the ensuite and exclaimed "What happened in there!" He looked around the corner and saw me sitting on the bed crying, (I had had a metre of hair before). He examined my head and said quite madder of fact "That doesn't look too bad. I still think you're beautiful Mum."

Thought I would just share that with you as you start shedding your hair.

And on the subject of hair, I now feel less embarrassed by my actions and can share with others what I did when I was bald. It was in February and the "Shave for a Cure campaign was on. I was at the local shop at the check out chatting with a family friend. She said how lovely my 'hair' looked and asked if I had though of doing the shave for a cure thing as I wouldn't have that much hair to shave off. I told her that it had only just started growing back and that I had already shaved for a cure! We had a good laugh about it. The lady next in line, who was ease dropping, rudely commented "Well, it certainly has grown back fast!". My friend the check out girl was shocked and so was I, in fact I was suddenly furious with this lady. We go through our life assuming the exterior of people reflects the interior. I though it took such and effort just to get here to the shop: get up, dressed, put on make-up, do the wig thing. I turned to the lady, looked her straight in the eye and pulled my wig off.

The point is, we are what we are, from the inside out, not the outside in. My 10 year old said I was like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. I had cancer and then changed to a person without cancer.

My thoughts are with you and the others loosing their hair........

Barb