Fighting the Good Fight

​      If roughly one in eight women in the US will be diagnosed with breast cancer over the course of their lifetime, it’s safe to say that there is no one, male or female, who will be unaffected by breast cancer at some point in their lives.  Even if you personally manage to make it to the finish line unscathed, it’s a near guarantee that a mother, sister, aunt, cousin, childhood friend, book club acquaintance, or gym buddy of yours will get that horrible diagnosis. With the overall rate of breast cancer in the US climbing every year and the number rising even faster for those under 50, it’s something that is on every woman’s mind with every suspicious lump. How many times over the course of your lifetime will you lie on a crinkly paper-topped table with a wand and some too cold gel abusing your breast tissue to find out whether that tiny lump is about to upend your life or whether you’ll be free to breathe a sigh of relief that you’ve evaded the devil one more time? For me, it’s been three times so far, and I’m thirty-two.  The mounting anxiety, the what ifs and the follow up appointments, and ultimately for me, the incredible relief, are predictable, and after the fact so easy to shrug off as opposed to the alternative. For those for whom that ultrasound is only the beginning of a harrowing journey, there is no comfort of a false alarm.

​      Along with the indignity, discomfort, and pain that make up a cancer diagnosis and its treatment, there is the added hurdle of just how much of one’s femininity will be snatched away over the duration of the disease and its cure.  There are the “big ticket” cures and their concurrent tragedies. Lumpectomies, mastectomies, oophorectomies—all of these take away tangible parts that can never be gotten back, as well as a part of oneself that is inherently tied to who you are as a woman. How long does it take to reorient oneself to who you are without a piece of yourself? Can it be done? How much harder is it for women who are undergoing chemo and then lose their hair? At the most conservative, 40% of people undergoing chemo lose all their hair, with the remaining 60% experiencing some kind of hair loss or thinning.  Whether you are the owner of long, thick, locks, or if you rock a more gamine pixie cut, your choice is part of your identity.  Losing it takes that choice away, and with it another piece of who you are.  A wig won’t bring that piece back, but it will make it easier to pretend it’s not missing, and sometimes a good game of pretend is what can get someone undergoing cancer treatment through another day.  With everything women battling cancer are going through, a bad hair day (or lack thereof) shouldn’t be on the list.  And if a woman wants to rock a scarf, baseball cap, or beanie, more power to them. But every woman deserves to be able to choose their own hairstyle, and at Shevy we are here to make it happen.  

​     Hair is basically our identity, and if we can help a cancer survivor find a bit of her identity again, we are so here for it.  When outfitting our new salon, we ensured that there are private areas for discreet consultations should someone wish it.  We want you to feel comfortable, and in control, at least for this part of your journey.  Over the past decade or so, we’ve unfortunately had the opportunity to do battle with many different medical insurances to get as much coverage for our client’s medically necessary wigs as we possibly can.  We understand that while this wig won’t save anyone’s life or give them any more time on this earth, it can improve the quality of that life significantly.  And that makes this battle important to us.  We know what a good hair day can mean to you when everything else seems to be falling apart, and as a company that is woman owned and woman run, it’s vital to us to help you feel as good as you can.

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