New hair. New me. My hair has quite a backstory. I haven’t sat in a hair salon chair in 5.5 years. Chemo, hormone suppression therapy, and regrowth took a lot longer than I expected, and the fear of letting go of any of my hair didn’t help. But I faced up to that fear, and here are the results from my first professional haircut since December 2020.
I’m so grateful to Penelope Love at Happy Sunshine Hair (and my wonderful Jane Cooke who connected me to Penelope!) for teaching me how to love and take care of my chemo curls that are now here to stay. She used my existing products. No upsells. No criticism. Just her talents, teaching, and support. She’s an independent stylist who rents her chair at a hair collective meaning the fee for the cut goes entirely to her, not a big brand. Happy Sunshine is a collective of 10 stylists making their way together in the beauty industry in NYC, a fashion capital of the world. (I’ll put a link to their site and Penelope’s in the comments below if you want to check them out!)
For most people, chemo curls fade after a couple of years, but I’m one of the few who is now a permanent curly girl. Penelope showed me how to own that with pride instead of mourning my original hair.
This weekend also marked a big medical shift. About 99% of the letrozole is now out of my system. The lupron will be hanging around in my system for a few more months while the tamoxifen ramps up. We’ll see how that goes!
I’m already feeling a lot better: less chronic pain in my joints and muscles, more flexibility, less fatigue and insomnia, fewer hot flashes, and less depression.
Cheers to starting a new chapter. I’m excited to celebrate with a vacation in Canada starting Monday. Let’s go have an adventure. I’m ready!
Christa Avampato 