Breast cancer and hair loss: understanding the emotional attachment to our hair

"It's the fear that's the worst."

Often during breast cancer treatment, patients will lose their hair. The intensity of chemotherapy allows the medication to attack cancerous cells - but this also leaves the body's rapidly growing cells (including those responsible for hair growth) vulnerable. Hair loss can be an extremely emotional, deeply affecting, and pivotal time for any cancer patient. Miriam Moylette from The Wig Clinic says that it not only represents the beginning of a patient's journey, but a considerable change in their life. Based in Galway, Athlone, and Tullamore, the service offers cancer patients hair replacement through customised wigs, as well as a selection of headwear like scarves and other hair pieces. Miriam says that for a lot of her clients, losing their hair becomes an emotive time because it represents a key turning point in their cancer diagnosis.

"When patients come to me, they tend to come as soon as they’ve been diagnosed," says Miriam.

"This allows them to go ahead with their treatment and alleviate a bit of the anxiety from the point of view that they’ve got something sorted at the beginning of their journey.

"The more informed they are at an earlier stage, the less anxious they’re likely to feel."

The earliest hair loss tends to occur during chemotherapy is 14 days after treatment begins. Once a patient contacts Miriam, she'll take them through their different wig options. The client will be asked if they want a replica or to go for something a little different. The wig is entirely customised to suit the person, ensuring that the patient can feel as much like themselves as possible.

"I think for them, it’s the fear that’s the worst," says Miriam.

"Everybody deals with it in different ways once the hair is gone, but if you come into somewhere beforehand and you’re organised, you know what to expect, you’re informed of the process and what’s going to happen in terms of symptoms, then it’s easier.

"The worst part of the hair loss is definitely the fear. You need to make sure you’re absolutely ready."

For Samantha Sherlock, it wasn't just the fear - it was the knowledge that her body and her looks were going to be changing. 14 years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer after deciding to get a lump that she assumed was just muscle tissue checked out. She spoke to Her's Girls With Goals earlier this month about her own diagnosis and how it changed her life. "I had kind of ignored it for a little while, because it didn't feel like a lump, it just felt like a bit of muscle tissue," she says. "And believe it or not, I was watching TV, and it was all over the news about Kylie Minogue, and I thought 'Oh my god, I'm the same age as her.' "From then on, it was really quick." Less than two weeks later, Samantha was diagnosed, hospitalised, and had a double mastectomy. Now 14 years on, she is part of the hair replacement team at Roches, the Dublin based store dedicated to fitting wigs and bras for breast cancer patients. "You're trying to do things to hide it yourself," she said. "I had a lady in the other day and she had gotten some cotton pads [for her bra] just to even herself out. She just knew herself it was different." Anne Roche agrees that much of the anxiety around breast cancer comes from fear of the unknown - not knowing what's going to happen to your body, and not knowing what you're going to look like afterwards. She says that when it comes to fitting clients for wigs, it's mostly about getting to a place where a person feels like themselves. "Most people want to look the same, they don't want to draw attention to themselves," she says. "They want to go to school and pick up the kids without anybody noticing, they want to go to the supermarket and for no heads to turn. "Most people dread coming in, but if they come in before [starting treatment], they're relieved and they say, 'Oh, OK, I can do this. I'm going to look normal and I can present to the world.'" Anne adds that it's not just looking different that can affect clients, but the overall feeling of a lack of control - a sense that is often best represented by the loss of hair. "When you're diagnosed with cancer, you can feel out of control because so many things are changing," she says. "Your body shape is changing, maybe you're not working anymore. Everything is moving." "It's really nice to have the security of feeling like yourself and looking like yourself. "When we're fitting a wig, we love if a client brings a friend or a family member. We can advise on the technical side, but when a partner says 'Yes, that looks like you,' that's the deal done for us." You can find our more about The Wig Clinic and Roches here.  You can check out our Breast Cancer Awareness Month special episode of Girls With Goals in full here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UEm-jiHp3I