Losing my hair

Breast Cancer

Woven from the experiences of 803 women. Patient-reported, not medical guidance.

Most women know, going in, that they will lose their hair. Almost none describe being ready for it. The moment of looking in the mirror — usually around week three of chemotherapy — is described as its own rupture. Not because the hair matters more than the diagnosis or the surgery, but because it is the first time the illness is visible to everyone. It is the moment the private becomes public.

In their words

Composite quotes, representative of many women, not verbatim.

“I knew I'd lose it. I'd prepared myself. I'd bought scarves. And then at week three I looked in the mirror and what I felt wasn't about the hair. It was about the body that used to be mine before any of this started. The hair was just the thing I could see.”

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WOVN · Patient-reported experience, not medical guidance.