Lurline: I lost my hair on my birthday, it had to be cut off because I disowned it.
It just didn't feel like my hair.
Doug: Hey. Hi I'm Doug.
Amanda: Hi Doug, pleased to meet you, Amanda.
Lurline: I've always loved my hair and I pride myself on looking after it
and I had a lot of compliments about my hair
The thought of losing it wasn't a good one for me but I thought I could deal with it and
as the days and weeks went on, I did struggle with looking into the mirror because I had changed
so much. And I just didn't like what I saw, I kind of questioned my husband, you know,
'can you love me anymore?!' (laughs)
Amanda: I was, um, weirdly I was quite excited.
I'd been shaving part of my head before I knew that I had cancer, as kind of a fashion thing.
And then when I went in and got that news - 'you have cancer' and your cancer care nurse
takes you aside and talks a bit more in detail about, you know, the hair loss et cetera,
I was like 'yeah I'm just going to shave it off'. I was looking forward to
it sounds strange but, having a reason to shave it all off.
Doug: I announced it on the Thursday, that
I'd got cancer, and then on the Saturday I went to football and I had, you know them beanie hats?
Lurline: Oh yeah.
Doug: And I put that on, and someone said to me 'Oh my God has it gone already?'
I said no, I've just got a hat on! It's sort of like, as soon as I've been
diagnosed, that me hair just went and I said 'I'm not even on chemo yet!'. The short term
loss of my hair wasn't a particularly big deal and in fact, just before my chemo, I
dyed by hair purple. Probably because I thought, well, if it looks stupid, which it did, if
it looks stupid, I can always shave it off. Another thing I did was, rather than waking
up in the morning and seeing loads of hair on your bed or on your pillow, I decided when
I was going to shave my hair off.
Amanda: Did you think about getting a wig when you lost your hair?
Doug: No I didn't. I was told that there wasn't many options and no, it never really entered
my head, in fact I don't know any men that have had a wig. I did start wearing a bandana.
Amanda: In terms of the rest of the body, I mean I think for me, it was just a delight not to
have to shave any more. You know, you didn't spend loads of money on razors or you know,
so that was fantastic.
Lurline: Actually having the hair loss kind of brought that smoothness,
that silkiness that um, it was lovely, actually, to have nice smooth skin everywhere and yeah,
as you said, Amanda, I didn't have to think about shaving so that was a plus, I think.
Doug: Not having to shave for months on end was fantastic but yeah I must admit it is a bit
of a shock when it goes everywhere but you just accept it don't you, it's just one of them things.
Lurline: Do you miss your hair?
Amanda: Do I miss it? Um, sometimes I really like not having it,
but then there are times when I want to dress up for a friend's birthday or something,
wear a nice dress and have long blonde hair and it's not there and yeah, I miss it
but not desperately. How about you?
Lurline: Because it happened so traumatically, it took a long time for me to adjust
to that and to accept it. I started wearing scarves immediately
and wigs, I wouldn't let anybody outside of my family see me without some sort of head
covering. When I was at, actually, a fashion show for patients at the particular hospital
where I was getting treated and it was there that someone said to me 'just try, see how
you feel' and she showed me pictures of herself without any hair and she looked fabulous and
I thought, well, if there's going to come a day, I need to do this so why not do it
with other people who may understand my situation so I decided to take my scarf off
and I haven't looked back since.
Doug: I think the best advice you can give if you're losing your hair through
chemo - it can be a shock - you know, if the chemo or the cancer treatment is doing that
to your hair, that's got to be doing some damage to the cancer you've got. And I think
you have to look at it positive like that.
Lurline: And so you just think, well, a chance to maybe have a different type of hair.
Amanda: And I think if you are one of those people that is struggling
emotionally with it, it's important just to get those emotions out, don't hold back on them.
And whether that be with friends, family or, you know, if you feel like you need counselling,
and as I say don't hold back, just get it out.
Doug: I quite like my new look, and I'm still here! Lurline: That's the main thing.
Lurline: I now love my grey hair and it's something that I would
never have said if I had not lost it through cancer treatment. Grey hair is fantastic!