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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.”