I am the President of 4Women.com and designer of the newly patented BeauBeauR head scarf, a fashionable scarf specifically designed for women and girls. The Beaubeau unites the world of fashion with medical hair loss. 4Women.com's mission is to help women and girls cope with the emotional upheaval of medical hair loss with dignity and confidence and to advocate for greater understanding of the emotional impacts of medical hair loss among medical professionals and the public. I lost my hair quite suddenly in 2002 due to the autoimmune disease, Alopecia Universalis. Like so many women who experience hair loss, I suddenly found myself alienated and excluded from the worlds of feminine fashion and beauty. I channeled my fear and depression into a positive and proactive goal of ensuring that I and other women and girls with medical hair loss have a fashionable accessory that empowers us to step back out into the world with dignity, feeling confident and beautiful, not sick. I come from three generations of breast cancer survivors and am a BRCA2 gene carrier. At extreme risk for developing breast cancer, I made the bold decision to have my ovaries removed and undergo a prophylactic full mastectomy about nine years ago. A "pre-vivor," I am cancer-free, but very much empathize with women who lose their hair during chemotherapy. I strive to be a source of strength and hope for women and girls with medical hair loss.
For the second time since first losing my hair over a decade ago, I have hair. Not a lot of hair, not long hair, not normally textured hair, but hair. What I mean is that the total area of my ...
June 11, 2012 - 9:46am
I’ve been a fan of the Bald Barbie idea since I first heard about it. I followed the debate that grew out of it and initially kept my voice of support to myself as I understand the voices of ...
June 5, 2012 - 7:13am
One in five UK women with hair loss feel neglected by their doctors. If you ladies thought you might get better care here in the US, think again, not in this Alopecian’s experience. If a man ...
May 21, 2012 - 10:30am
As an Alopecian, the hardest part of hair loss for me is that I am assumed to be sick, or more specifically, to have cancer. Not only don’t I have cancer, but beyond my immune system’s assault on ...
May 15, 2012 - 8:14am
I might be in the minority, but I am okay with Facebook’s decision to censor The Scar Project’s photos of topless women exposing the scars they’ve accumulated in their battles with breast cancer. ...
May 8, 2012 - 6:57am
I might be in the minority, but I am okay with Facebook’s decision to censor The Scar Project’s photos of topless women exposing the scars they’ve accumulated in their battles with breast cancer. ...
May 8, 2012 - 6:45am
If I told you there was an online “hair loss support” site dedicated to supporting those of us (men, women, and children) with hair loss, maybe you’d think, “That’s great!”
If I told you that ...
May 2, 2012 - 10:43am
Sounds like Bald Barbie is in the works and she’ll have company. MGA’s Bratz and Moxie Girlz are losing their locs as well in solidarity with Bald Barbie and all the doll-loving young girls out ...
April 10, 2012 - 7:02am
More and more studies are telling us that breast cancer screens lead to unnecessary treatment. I think it all boils down to your focal point, population vs. individual. Medical recommendations ...
April 5, 2012 - 6:40am
Not so fast Myriad Genetics. Back to court with you so the judicial system can reconsider the decision to uphold your patents on OUR BRCA genes. Good news for we BRCA mutation carriers, bad news ...
March 29, 2012 - 8:25am
I’ve wasted so much time wishing my hair would grow back. I’m done with it. I don’t even want it to grow back because it just falls out again and I have to ride the same old roller coaster. So ...
March 26, 2012 - 9:58am
I want hair. I so want hair. I want it to grow thick and long and luscious and to never stop growing.
Careful what I wish for. While I so miss a normal head of hair, I’ve never mourned the ...
March 19, 2012 - 11:00am
Alopecia made the list! Of “My Extreme Afflictions” that is. It’s a series on ABC’s news show, 20/20, in which they are covering some truly bizarre health inflictions. It was emotionally ...
March 13, 2012 - 11:48am
What does a woman do when she wakes up and discovers half of her eyebrow missing? No, it was not one of those college pranks in which mischievous things happen while sleeping. This is alopecia ...
March 7, 2012 - 8:25am
Cancer stuns us, often to the point it is hard to think straight, hard to turn off the thoughts, and especially hard to organize our thoughts (especially once the chemo fog rolls in). Suddenly, ...
February 29, 2012 - 11:12am
The dust has settled ever so slightly on the Komen-Planned Parenthood eruption. It seems everyone and their cousin has weighed in on the issue. Meanwhile, I’ve listened. My overall perception ...
February 23, 2012 - 11:29am
Screening Saves Lives. We’re bombarded with the message. Colon cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, bowel cancer, cervical cancer, you name it cancer, heart tests, blood cholesterol tests, on and ...
February 15, 2012 - 12:23pm
How many surrendered body parts does it take to truly cheat cancer by BRCA mutation? 4 and counting….
A majority of women who test positive for a BRCA mutation view prophylactic mastectomy as ...
February 6, 2012 - 10:59am
Who would’ve thought Barbie could rise to the pinnacle of cancer politics? And still climbing. In a country in which approximately 12,400 children are diagnosed with cancer each year (and the ...
February 1, 2012 - 7:44am
Could hair tests someday provide a viable alternative to mammograms? An Australian research consortium is exploring the possibility after discovering that hair from women with breast cancer had a ...
January 26, 2012 - 12:08pm
There’s looking for love in all the wrong places, and then there’s looking for (and keeping) love with all the wrong head wear. Can a bald woman find, or better yet, be the recipient of romantic ...
January 23, 2012 - 10:28am
What a difference a year makes. Last year, I was writing a ‘Holiday Blawg’ due to my Mom’s diagnosis of Lymphoma two weeks before Christmas. It was very hard for me to put any cheer into the ...
December 23, 2011 - 11:35am
Hair loss is something that happens to us. Be it a side effect of chemotherapy, a thyroid disorder, a hormone imbalance, or our immune system’s decision to attack our hair follicles, hair loss ...
December 8, 2011 - 8:35am
There is one common thread that runs through human cancer stories - a renewed appreciation for life and love. Why is it that it too often takes serious questions of health or life to help us ...
November 30, 2011 - 8:31am
Bless me father - I just committed the cardinal sin for an Alopecian. I, Susan Beausang, an 11-year veteran of Alopecia, assumed that another person with hair loss had cancer. What was I ...
November 28, 2011 - 8:55am
As Thanksgiving approaches, I have even more cause than usual to reflect on just what I am most grateful for this year.
All around me, all around you, are growing numbers of families who this ...
November 23, 2011 - 9:19am
So now I have hair - and now I have to maintain it. In my previous posts, I lamented about my new Alopecia hair and how unnatural the new hair is - very strange color of charcoal and very coarse ...
October 26, 2011 - 7:01am
A young woman who will remain unnamed recently shared with me her feelings about mammograms. As a Previvor, someone who surrendered her real breasts to avoid a breast cancer diagnosis, I do not ...
October 20, 2011 - 11:17am
Is it just coincidence, or is the moon in hair growth phase? I’ve noticed that a number of my Alopecian friends on Facebook are experiencing hair regrowth and for the 2nd time in 11 years, I too ...
October 18, 2011 - 8:13am
I bet even those living on the moon have heard about Steve Jobs’ passing due to pancreatic cancer. Like many, I feel very impacted by his death. Like many who have lost loved one’s to that ...
October 12, 2011 - 7:12am
Every year, there are more and more stories about young women, many not yet mothers, who are pursuing genetic testing and joining a growing Club of Previvors. As I read their stories, I am deeply ...
October 7, 2011 - 6:25am
For the second time since first losing my hair over a decade ago, I have hair. Not a lot of hair, not long hair, not normally textured hair, but hair. What I mean is that the total area of my ...
Susan Beausang commented on Susan Beausang's post When Bald Beats Hair Loss