Disha Murugupandiyan Week 3 - Strands of Identity
At the age of 33, Jessica was diagnosed with Stage 2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC), a type of breast cancer. She went through numerous treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. During this painful process, she lost her hair.
Many of us don't realize how much something as simple as hair means to us. It’s taken for granted. We see it as simply something that we have to spend time washing and wrestling in the morning to lie flat. However, for cancer patients, as they go through chemotherapy, hair loss becomes something that they are aware of; they run their fingers through their hair only to pull back and find voluminous clumps of hair sitting in their hand. It’s only at that point of “losing” that people realize exactly how much it means to them, and how hard it is to lose it. Whenever they look at themselves in the mirror, they see the absence of something that was once a part of them and used to represent their confidence, femininity, or connection to their true self. One piece in the puzzle of identity is lost and swept under the rug, not to be seen again for a long time.
Not only is the loss of hair stressful, it’s an obvious, physical sign that cancer patients are sick. Stereotypically, whenever someone sees an individual that is bald, they don’t think that it’s out of that individual’s choice. They think, “Who would choose to be bald?” Although many make that choice to shave their heads for the fun of the experience or to express themselves in their own way, cancer patients do it to avoid the slow process of hair loss. In an article for the National Breast Cancer Foundation discussing hair loss, Jessica stated, “The thought of losing my hair was worse than actually losing it.” Being bald is a public sign of cancer, forcing individuals to display their diagnosis to what feels like the whole world. Many “don’t want [others] to see [them] as this sickly being who lost all [their] agency and was reduced to merely existing.” It would lead to others treating them differently, whether they were a family member or someone they met for the first time at a coffee shop.
As a result, many use wigs, beanies, or wraps that cover their head. Others don’t. That’s when cancer patients have the chance to gain control of the joystick that's part of the game cancer plays in their body. Some choose to cover up and reclaim their normal, while others choose to embrace their new normal. Neither choice is wrong, and everyone is different. However, one aspect of their journeys are similar; the emotional growth that occurs. At 33, Jessica is in one of the prime decades for women. Losing hair at that age isn’t easy. Yet, most patients, including her learn to redefine their definition of self-worth, growing with every new experience. They discover aspects of identity that go deeper than physical appearance, beyond the mop of hair on their head.
Picture and Source Credit: https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/blog/when-hair-loss-is-about-more-than-just-hair-jessicas-story/
Reading this blog made me realize how important hair is to me, and especially how important it can be for others. I usually struggle with my hair, as some days I want to straighten it or some days I want to add product to keep it curly, and whenever it isn't satisfying me, I sometimes joke, "At this point, I'm going to cut it all off". I always knew that those who go through a chemo treatment may lose their hair and choose to shave it off, especially after watching Alexa and Katie, but I never realized the significance of it, as they may choose to get rid of their hair just so that they wouldn't lose small chunks over time. It kind of reminds me of the ideology to just "rip the band-aid off" to get it over with.
ReplyDeleteHair is something I feel as a society we neglect until we realize it is gone. It is something we expect most people to have and as you said when we see someone who is bald our first thought was "Why would they choose to be bald?" It is absurd that we have made hair a necessity of conventional beauty standards when there are those, such as cancer patients, who are unable to grow or maintain their hair. It is like society is saying "If you don't have hair you are ugly" which is far from the truth.
ReplyDeleteAs you have pointed out, hair has not only grown to be part of the beauty standard but also a part of people's identities. Hair has proven to be a part of different cultures due to its variation in texture depending on which part of the world you originate from. Every time I hear someone talk about hair or hairstyles I always think about how cornrows or braids have developed from a method of survival and preserving food to a fashion trend.
Hair, something so trivial, had served different people various purposes of significance that it has now become a necessity to function in society.
Hey, Disha. I’ve noticed a common theme of people in this class tying hair and identity together. I really like the connection. I think that hair is one of the (literal) thousands of things humans take for granted. I like the glass half full perspective with cancer, and that patients can grow more of their internal identity and value themselves with more than their physical appearance. Cancer has always been a curious monster and it’s weird that your body is literally at war with itself. It’s sad to think about how the cells (“Building blocks of life”) we all learned about in elementary school and would color in labeling activities of are the same ones trying to kill some people. What’s “life” about death? Also, cancer awareness is very prevalent socially, with all the ribbons and social media outreach, etc. But, why is so much time and resources put into it? I’m betting majority (if not all) of the world knows what cancer is, what exactly are we spreading awareness about? I guess the point is that it’s beyond imperative to find a cure for cancer (duh?). This is common sense and actively known by many people. So why is it being defunded!?! (http://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/trump-team-dismantles-efforts-find-cure-cancer-and-other-deadly-disorders-and) It’s stupid and extremely irresponsible for the government to cut the desperately needed research, especially when it should have been a main priority instead. Maybe I just answered my own question, and this is exactly why cancer awareness is so important. It’s being treated like background noise instead of the big scary disease that it is. Going back to your point about hair specifically, I agree that losing hair is a major step in the long, painful process of becoming cancer. What I mean by that is that people with cancer become seen as cancer. Just cancer. Not a person with cancer but cancer itself, which I think ties into your point about others treating people who have cancer differently. I actually heard a little about Jessica last year, and I’m glad to hear she recovered. That’s unfortunately not the case for many other patients. Maybe one day we’ll sober up and decide that cancer is in fact a good cause to fund research for.
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