Confident and Courageous Women Embrace Life After Hair Loss


Many women spend thousands of dollars cutting, coloring, curling, and straightening their hair to perfection. So when illness causes certain women to lose their hair, a part of their individuality is lost, too. In a new photo shoot, Vogue.com highlights nine women who experienced such a fate, and discovered how they dealt with — and eventually embraced — their own hair loss. Their stories are empowering, and their style is more courageous and daring than ever before. From headscarves to statement earrings to baring their bald heads loud and proud, Vogue.com shares these stories or reinvention and gives a new perspective to beauty and dressing with confidence.

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Phoebe de Croisset is a two-time leukemia survivor. (Photo: Photo: VOGUE/Cass Bird)

Phoebe de Croisset started working at Vogue when she was 21 years old. Since then, she’s been diagnosed with leukemia and beaten it twice. “Hair was one of the things that made me feel feminine,” she told Vogue. “Femininity means something different to me now. It’s about being comfortable in your skin.”

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Blogger Mia Sidaros lost her hair — and eventually her life — from bone cancer. (Photo: VOGUE/Cass Bird)

MiaLaMaven.com style blogger Mia Sidaros looked like your average 17-year-old except for her smooth head. It was the result of Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Vogue shot the fashionable teen last month for a shoot — her mother Danielle tells the magazine it was an incredible experience. Sadly, Mia lost her battle with cancer shortly after the photo shoot, back home in California.

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Rachel Fleit has been without hair for almost her entire life (Photo: VOGUE/Cass Bird)

Filmmaker and producer Rachel Fleit has had alopecia since she was one year old. And kept her condition a secret growing up. Yahoo Beauty interviewed her last year. “In college, I stopped wearing a wig and beauty was suddenly the greatest irony of my life,” she told us. “People were like, ‘Oh my god, you’re so beautiful. It took me a long time to do it, but when I did I got amazing feedback and validation in my physical appearance.”

To see all these women’s stories, check out the Vogue.com video below:

Related:

Rachel Fleit on Loving Herself From Head to Toe

What It’s Like to Lose Your Hair in Your 20s

“I Haven’t Shampooed My Hair in Six Years”