How Ovarian Cancer Survivor Teri Chow’s Wig (& Humor) Helped Her Cope With Hair Loss

“I think it was shortly after the second round of chemo, so that would’ve been about four weeks after starting chemo, [my hair] started to fall out,” Chow says. “It was coming out in the shower [and] it was coming out just combing [my] hair.”

Some women may choose to shave their heads as a way to avoid watching their hair fall out, but instead Teri decided to start wearing a wig immediately. For her, it was a humorous experience, especially since many people didn’t even realize she was wearing one.

“In fact at the school, the other moms at the school didn’t realized that I was going through this and they’d compliment me on the wig and not knowing it was wig,” Terri laughs. “I made the mistake to somebody I thought knew. I went, ‘Oh, thank you,’ And I moved the wig forward and she freaked out [and I was] like, ‘Sorry, sorry, I thought you knew!’

Eventually, when her hair started growing back, Terri decided to get rid of her wig and style her new short hair into something that she was more familiar with. She decided to visit her hair salon to transform her short, curly gray locks into a whole new look. So, she asked her stylist to straighten and dye her hair.

How Does Chemotherapy Cause Hair Loss?

Hair loss is the most common side effect of chemotherapy, and can impact patients both physically and emotionally. Hair loss is caused due to chemotherapy targeting quickly-dividing cells throughout the body  such as cancer cells and hair cells. This doesn’t only include hair on your scalp. When undergoing chemo you may also experience hair loss on your eyebrows and eyelashes.

Hair loss is typically inevitable, but there are ways to slow down the process. By using a cooling cap, blood flow is constricted to the scalp which limits the amount of circulating chemotherapy that reaches the hair follicles  protecting them from some of the chemo's damaging effects.

There are different types of cooling caps to consider, and each company that supplies them will typically detail how efficient they are through data. Some versions of these caps are even high-tech, connecting to a computer that controls the flow of cooled liquid through the cap. In some cases, people will wear cooling caps on their hands and feet to ease feelings of numbness, tingling, or pain which is caused by nerve damage.

It’s important to remember that these caps don’t prevent hair thinning, but it does prolong the process.

It’s OK To Grieve Over Hair Loss

Feeling upset over losing your hair isn’t an uncommon feeling, and a completely warranted emotion. Experts tell SurvivorNet that they encourage patients to grieve over their diagnosis, as often it represents the end of them being a “healthy person.” Therefore, the grief is an important step to accepting the new normal and being able to push through treatment. Once grieving the initial shock of losing your hair, it’s easier to accept, and then they can change their mindset and try to find some positivity.

"I help patients acknowledge their grief so they can move on. I think the more we try to push [those feelings] away and say, 'Oh, it doesn't matter,' it tends to stick around a little longer. "If [a woman] seems like she's having trouble moving on, we explore [that too],” says  Laurie Ostacher, a medical social worker at Sutter Bay Medical Foundation in the Bay Area. “It's amazing how quickly you can get used to not having any hair."

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.