Artist Jane Kelly speaks out on battle with hair loss after chemotherapy

Writing for the Guardian this week is the artist and former Daily Mail journalist Jane Kelly, who was diagnosed with Stage Four ovarian cancer in April 2010. In her articles, Kelly speaks in detail of the wholly unexpected impact of losing her hair after chemotherapy and how she found ways to manage her hair loss.

Kelly firstly described what losing her hair after chemo felt like:

“Chemo makes most people go bald and in June my hair began its journey into the shower tray. I was warned this would be distressing, and it was: stepping out of the shower after the second chemo session, seeing clods of hair lying like drowned mice around the plughole, I felt breathless with shock at what I’d lost.”

The 54-year-old then tried to find ways of managing her hair loss condition. She tried standard and human hair wigs from a number of sources, but never felt truly comfortable in her own skin until she took the bold step of shaving off all of her remaining hair.

Kelly then says that she then discovered the elegance of fashionable ladies’ turbans, taking inspiration from glamorous Dynasty star Joan Collins, who famously said:

“I must give good hair and if I don’t, I will give good hat. For trips abroad, or for accessorising with a gold sling-back, nothing beats a turban, darling.”