Hair Loss News

Navigation

Hair Loss News Archives


October 2006

New book will be turning heads in the desert


So you lose your hair.

You’re alive — despite cancer.

“For the most part, we women misconstrue how we look. We are way too judgmental — we’re too thin, too fat, too tall, have bad skin, bad hair, too many wrinkles. And that’s when we’re well,” says Jackson Hunsicker, a Los Angeles-based film and television writer.

“What happens when we are sick and have cancer and lose our hair while undergoing aggressive cancer treatment? It can be devastating.”

But it can also be beautiful, says Hunsicker, who proves her point in her newly released book, “Turning Heads: Portraits of Grace, Inspiration, and Possibilities” (Press On Regardless, $29.95)
It’s a compilation of striking color and black-and-white photos of women bald from chemotherapy.

The photos were taken by 59 award-winning and fashion art photographers including Eddie Adams, Annie Wells and Michael Childers; each picture is accompanied by a brief personal account of living through adversity.

The women are of all ages, all races, all types, because, as Hunsicker says, “the disease knows no boundaries.”

She knows — she’s a two-time cancer survivor herself.
“In 2000, while I was going to treatment for cancer, I met a woman who refused to have chemotherapy because she didn’t want to look like, as she put it, a bandanna lady. She is now dead,” Hunsicker said.

Instead, with the help of cancer societies and other organizations across the country, sheHunsicker sought out women who were fighting the disease with strength and pride.

Two of them live here in the desert.

Pam Clerihan, 58, is an artist who lives at Sun City Shadow Hills in Indio.

“I never thought of myself as very photogenic when she (Hunsicker) asked me to do it, but this was probably one of the most interesting experiences of my life,” Clerihan said.

“The photographer made me feel like queen for a day.”

In her story in the book, she talks about making the decision to cut off her hair, which had been coming out in handfuls anyway. “I tried to wear wigs, but it was summer and so hot here the sweat was just pouring off me,” she said.

So, she made an appointment and invited her children and friends to join her for the shearing.

“We had cocktails and cheese and wine,” she remembers. “Afterward, I went into the bathroom and cried for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden I realized that hair is nothing to me.
“So I put on some jewelry and made up my face and decided to just be bald.”

Pam Bertino, 57, was also approached by Hunsicker.

“I’m a big believer that everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, and I guess this is mine,” said Bertino, of Mountain Center. “I gave a copy of the book to my oncologist, all my friends and family have a copy. I take it with me everywhere I go — I want to share it with everyone.”

The book shares details of Bertino’s best mood lifter: Riding her motorcycle.

“It’s a fun, free thing. I ride my Harley with my husband and his friends and my girlfriends. And because I’m bald, everyone else gets helmet hair, but I don’t. That’s a benefit.”