I'm sad in oncology and I hear the words that no young mother ever wants to hear. Nicola, I'm sorry, you have breast（乳房） cancer（癌症）. In that raw（未煮过的） moment, what do you think my first question was? Am I going to die? A question of primal（最初的） fear, vulnerability（弱点） and the sheer（绝对的） dread（畏惧） of my own mortality. It's the one question anybody would ask, isn't it?

  What do you think my second question was? Am I going to lose my hair? Why did I ask that? Maybe it was the hairdresser in me. Maybe it was the woman in me. Or maybe it was just the human in me.

  My love affair（事情） with hair has given me my career. Hair made（使） me and all of my clients feel beautiful and feminine（女性的）. But in that moment, my whole perspective（透视画法） on hair and life utterly（完全地） changed. What does your hair mean to you? Your fingers threw it, freshly（新近） washed and it swishes around your face and it sits just perfectly back at you in that salon（沙龙） mirror. Are you smiling?

  You've worked miracles（奇迹）. You look ten years younger. Good hair days are transformative. Ask my husband over there. He'd have his hair cut every week if I agreed. So that momentary（瞬间的） perspective（透视画法） of no more good hair days just felt like the cherry（樱桃） on top of the cancer（癌症） cake and I was terrified.

  My epiphany however, that came months later. During daily sessions（会议） of radiotherapy, I saw woman after woman with no hair, no eyebrows（眉毛）, no eyelashes（睫毛）. Burdened, ashamed（惭愧(的)） and embarrassed by her unwanted new looks. Heads down, crowns（王冠） gone, sparkle gone and it was in this evolving（发展） reality that my whole purpose evolved（发展）. This was it. This was the reason cancer had found（找到） me so I could truly（真实地） understand the importance of hair.

  Hair wasn't about vanity（空虚） like I'd always thought. There was nothing vain about it. And so my post-cancer life has involved years of extensive（广泛的） research and training to truly（真实地） understand the science of sculpting hair and the impact of not having it. I volunteered with women where hair was not a given. I opened conversations with doctors, undertook（从事） research and my team and I have helped over 10,000 people navigate（驾驶） their own hair loss journey. And it's here that I discovered the link between hair and identity.

  Hair isn't about vanity. There's nothing vain about it. Simply having hair is about acceptance（接受） and for some people it's about survival（ 幸存）. I have met too many women to count who have refused life extending（延长） treatment just because they would lose their hair, in their words dying with dignity（尊严） and their hair meant more. So why do they feel like this? Well that's because what hair loss really means to them is a loss of control, a loss of identity, a loss of their perceived（察觉） beauty and femininity and a loss of their self（自己）-esteem（尊重）.