Losing Your Hair

How important is it to you?

By Annette Beach

As many of you know, the medications to treat serious illnesses often have side effects that include hair loss.

Since my diagnosis and because of different treatments, I’ve dealt with hair loss a few times and I do not like it! Thankfully, I have never lost all of my hair at one time, but what I did lose was traumatic to me.

My first experience was a few months after my son was born. I had noticed significant hair in the drain after showering and extra hair on my clothes, but I tried to ignore it. I also had several bald spots. One evening, my son’s little hand grasped my hair and the entire handful came out.

Another time, a friend’s son was sitting in the back seat of my car while I drove with the top down. Shortly into our trip, the boy started yelling, “Mrs. Beach, your hair is hitting me in the face.” I wasn’t sure what he meant because I knew my hair wasn’t that long. When we pulled up to a stop sign, I looked back and saw him literally taking my hair off of his face and there was a lot of it. The thought of having the wind blow through my hair, causing me to lose it, made me sick.

When I’ve expressed concerns about losing my hair, people have said, “You can always buy a wig.” I have never found comfort in those words! To me, it’s just not that simple. People seem to think it’s all about vanity. Unless they’ve experienced it, they cannot understand how it truly feels. Many times I’ve asked those same people, “How do you drive a convertible while wearing a wig?” or “How can you be intimate with someone while wearing a wig?”

Have you ever taken treatments that caused your hair to fall out or change the way you look? Did it matter to you? How did people react? What was your reaction?