Name: Kelly Mellott(@kmellott)
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Age: 34
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Profession: Healthcare content marketing and social media marketing
Diagnosis: Breast cancer, diagnosed at age 32, and BRCA1 gene mutation, a genetic mutation that greatly increases a woman’s risk of developing breast and / or ovarian cancer.
My hair was long before I started the treatment but I always disliked it, so I never cried the loss of long hair as much as the idea of what baldness represented: being sick. The hair on my head started to grow back during the last few rounds of chemotherapy, in the style of male baldness, like a little bird. But my eyebrows and eyelashes, which until then had managed to hang a few hairs, finally fell out at that point, so it was really frustrating!
Everything came and went and grew at different times. I cut my hair and dyed it as soon as I had enough to work. I was very lucky to have a dear stylist friend, who gave me someone to trust when I was balding and feeling vulnerable or during those awkward, irregular phases. Your support helped me make decisions that made my hair goals easier.
Advertisement I ended up liking my hair
– a platinum blonde pixie that would never have chosen for me otherwise – much more than I thought. In fact, I’m considering keeping it long-term, although for now, I’m letting it grow because I can.
How I handled the awkward phase: I think I’m still in that phase. The first hair that I grew was curly and frizzy. Before chemotherapy, my hair was thin and flat. I had to find the right products to keep my new curls happy. It was a lot of learning and experimentation.
I also made a commitment to using toxic-free products so that was a challenge too. One product that I ended up liking was the Sun Bum surf paste texturing product. The next thing would be to find fun accessories, which helped me a lot. Headbands and barrettes are my favorite things right now and they are very fashionable, so it’s easy to find something for every style.
Favorite Hair Milestone Ad
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I have not reached it yet, but I am eagerly awaiting my first ponytail. I can get a baby / half pony now with some bobby pins, but I think the day I can put it back in a real ponytail will be when I start to feel like I am past the post-chemo hair season.
What elseme Annoying is when people say something like, “Wow, I always wanted to have short hair, but I’ve never been brave enough to try.” I know people think he says it as a compliment, but going bald wasn’t really a choice, so please don’t compare it. I’ve had some people say something like that without knowing my story, but even after I explained twice that feeling to them: “Good for you! You’re doing great. I don’t think everyone can do it like you! “
Hebiggest challenge: It took a while for my hair to come back, in the sense that I felt like I had lost that outward symbol that I had just been through something really traumatic and was still very fragile. Since I went through radiation and another six months of chemo all while my hair was coming back, I was worried that people would no longer see me as “sick”, even though I still was, and hope it would go back to “normal.”
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This definitely happened. I got comments like, “You don’t look sick at all,” in the same days that I spent getting extra fluids at the infusion center because I was very sick from chemotherapy. That was really frustrating at times.
Thebiggest lesson: I have learned to keep an open mind to try something new. I have been so amazed at how much I liked my new look and find myself constantly saying, “I never would have tried it on my own.” I had to learn to let go of the idea of precaution in order to embrace a completely new and improved version of myself.
Tips for other women who regrow hair after treatment: Don’t compare your progress with that of others. It can be easy to get discouraged, but everyone’s body is different and responds to treatment and recovery differently, too. It seems that some people’s hair grows ridiculously fast while others crawl. Everything is so unique to you, so don’t be discouraged if yours is not the same as someone else’s.
– As Jennifer Garam was told. Survivor interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
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