Stylish Ideas for Hair Loss After Cancer and Alopecia (2024)

Mia Sidaros

When Mia Sidaros, a seventeen-year old fashion blogger living with a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma, visited the Vogue photo studios last month, she was a style-obsessed teenager who counted a platinum crop and a Mohawk amongst her hair adventures. “This was a dream come true for Mia,” says her mother, Danielle, of her day spent on set. “She loved fashion more than anything.” Shortly after returning home to California, Mia passed away, surrounded by her family.

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Carly Severn

Carly Severn first noticed a change in her hairline at age eighteen. Just over a year later, she had lost all of her long dark hair to alopecia, followed by her eyebrows and eyelashes. These days, her wardrobe of head-skimming hats is matched only by her skill with a brow pencil. “This marks my tenth anniversary without hair,” says Severn. “It’s also ten years with my husband. As far as twin anniversaries go, that’s a pretty good one.”

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Maggie Kudirka

Maggie Kudirka, a ballerina with the Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, found the perseverance and strength she needed to make it as a dancer. That same drive gave her determination when she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer at age 23. “Cancer has made me a better dancer,” she said, “I never know if it’s my last time in the studio so I’m living each rehearsal to the fullest.”

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Valisia LeKae

Broadway actress and singer Valisia LeKae hails from two generations of hairdressers. “As an African-American woman who practically grew up in a salon, my hair was my crown and glory.” After losing it while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer in 2013, she made the decision to go bare to the Grammys. “I wanted that girl who was afraid to be her authentic self to say, ‘If she can walk the red carpet with her bald head, then I can embrace who I am right now.’”

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Elly Mayday

Ovarian cancer survivor Elly Mayday is on a mission to change the way women view themselves. When the plus-size model lost her hair following a hysterectomy at age 25 and months of chemotherapy, she found herself redefining her vision of beauty. “I started wearing combat boots, tight pants, and jackets. This is coming from a girl that used to do pinup and wore polka dots and pink.” During the early stages of her hair loss, she dyed her hair teal, then shaved it off—although “wearing a brunette wig with bangs was a new experience for me!”

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Rachel Fleit

A bald head symbolizes freedom to filmmaker and producer Rachel Fleit. But that wasn’t always the case. Rachel, who developed alopecia at age one, spent the majority of her early life keeping her condition a secret. “The irony is, no one told me I was beautiful when I wore a wig,” she says. “Now, someone tells me I’m beautiful every day.”

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Kate Ambrosi

Kate Ambrosi, 27, was a lawyer celebrating a recent move to New York City and her first wedding anniversary when her life was interrupted by breast cancer last year. Her first wig after chemo was “long, blonde, and fabulous,” but after months of not wanting to be seen without it, “I took it off. It was my coming-out party!” These days, as her hair begins to grow back, a wide-brimmed sun hat lends striking new proportions to a gamine pixie. “Mia Farrow and Twiggy are definite style icons of mine.”

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Suleika Jaouad

Emmy Award–winning writer Suleika Jaouad had waist-length auburn hair when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia at age 22. Three years of chemotherapy treatments and a life-saving bone marrow transplant later, she’s finally in remission and experimenting with everything from hair tattoos to Beatles-inspired bobs. “Short hair is growing on me. I think I’ll keep it.”

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Phoebe de Croisset

Phoebe de Croisset began working at Vogue when she was 21. A decade later, she’s beat leukemia—twice. “Hair was one of the things that made me feel feminine,” she says of life before cancer. “Femininity means something different to me now. It’s about being comfortable in your skin.”

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Donni Charm Donni Daisy scarf, $88, donnicharm.com

Yestadt Millinery denim bucket hat, $195, yestadtmillinery.com