A hairdresser and breast cancer fighter kept positive by making wigs for cancer patients after the nightmare of losing all her hair in only two weeks since the chemotherapy.
Mum of two, Jo Hall, 39, had her life dramatically change when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Grade 3 breast cancer in July, 2020.
Things went from bad to worse when she was told the devastating news that she got five tumors in her lymph nodes later in September, and had to cut off the breast to modify the disease.
Jo said: “At that moment I was scared. I thought about my kids. I thought I’m going to die. All I kept thinking about was my funeral.”
Following the mastectomy, the hairdresser for 23 years lost all her hair only two weeks after the gruelling chemotherapy.
She said: “I have noticed a couple of people have felt awkward around me because of my cancer diagnosis, especially when I lost my hair. It was quite a shocking sight to see me with a shiny bald head.
“I’m a hairdresser, I love hair, every single bite of it. So it felt like a double blow for me.
“I just wanted my hair back because when I looked in the mirror, I just didn’t recognise the person looking back at me. It was deeply upsetting.”
(Pic 1: Jo after the mastectomy; Pic 2: Jo after losing her hair)
Therefore, while fighting the disease, Jo began to take online wig making courses, and started her ‘Hope Hair’ business using her hairdressing skills to make wigs for herself and other cancer patients in their difficult path to recovery.
“When I put a wig on, I felt totally transformed, I felt like my old self again. And that’s why I want to make wigs for other people because the pain of losing your hair is just absolutely awful,” Jo said.
“It brings me so much joy to know that I’m helping women feel good about themselves after such a devastating blow to their confidence, as losing their hair.”
Jo in her wig
Jo, of Longlevens, Gloucester, changed the salon in her garage to the wig-making studio, and as soon as she felt well during the treatment she would go back to work, hand making personalized wigs as required.
She said: “The wigs gave me focus and really helped me during those lonely days. If it wasn’t for my wigs, I don’t know if I could keep so positive.”
Jo making wigs in her studio
The encouragement from social media has further motivated Jo to make wigs, when covid-19 made her cancer pathway strewn with obstacles.
Due to the coronavirus a biopsy that was planned for Jo in February, 2020 has been cancelled as non-urgent, which could have diagnosed her earlier.
She said covid pressures on hospitals, and the subsequent lockdowns, caused her diagnosis to be delayed further, and meant she had no support from family, friends, or from cancer charities, even when she was undergoing the chemotherapy which was in total five and a half months.
She added: “Maggie’s Center was shut. Everything was shut. I couldn’t leave the house for about five months.
“The chemo was horrendous. I was sick and tired all the time, and wasn’t able to sleep because doctors gave me steroids. I just felt like I had the worst hangover ever for about five months. I couldn’t get out of bed some days. Every bone in my body hurt and ached all over.”
Jo eventually turned to social media.
“Twitter was a lifeline for me,” she said. “It has introduced me to a lot of other women with breast cancer who inspired me to keep going. During those very dark days they have been a massive comfort to me, and it’s made me want to help them as much as I can by making them a wig and supporting each other.”
A couple of weeks after the chemo, Jo’s diagnosis was read as No Evidence of Disease (NED), which she was taking as a positive. She also had her hair slowly growing back.
However, Jo was diagnosed with Stage 4 Grade 4 cancer which is incurable in September 2021 as a result of a pet scan for reassurance that her cancer has gone away, at which time her hair has grown to three inches long.
She said: “I wasn’t shocked but I felt like I was having an out of body experience. I’m sad I have to go through more treatment, but I want to fight as hard as I can.
“I know I might lose my hair again, but I’m not worried about it because I make the best wigs.”
Jo said she is going to set up a go fund me page for people to donate money to help her buy materials for wigs so that she could continue making them and send them to cancer patients.
She said: “Cancer has made me a more loving and giving person. I had to embrace it, and I want to show other women that this is not the end of the world.
“I have to be there to support them going through it. We’re going to beat it.”
Visit Jo's wig business on her Instagram page --- @jojoscissorshair.
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