Hair Re-Growth After Chemo: Victoria Derbyshire’s Facebook Video Gets 4.3K Views

The below video from the Facebook page of Victoria Derbyshire, a BBC presenter who has endured and overcome breast cancer, is going viral. The video shows Victoria saying goodbye to her wig, which Derbyshire credits with helping her get through and “get on” with life and go to work without worrying about the emotional ravages of hair loss. The viral video titled “It’s time to stop wearing the wig! “ has quickly gained 4,300 views in the hour since it was posted to Victoria’s Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaDerbyshire/videos/10154485083796547/

In the video, Derbyshire admits that losing her hair was the worse part of going through the cancer journey, and Victoria asked people not to judge her for those feelings. Victoria said that when she lost her hair, she worried that it would never grow back again. However, not only did Derbyshire’s hair grow back, it grew back just as thick, if not thicker, and with just as much shine than before she went through the chemotherapy process. Victoria also noticed that the texture of her newly regrown hair had changed. Her hair was more “ringlety,” as she put it, with ringlets that weren’t necessarily the small curly kind of 4C type of hair, but perhaps more towards the large almost beach wave kind.

Victoria opened her viral video with the news that it was time to stop wearing a wig, which she has been wearing since December 2015. That was when Derbyshire finished her chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer. During that time, Derbyshire said that 50 to 75 percent of her hair fell out. Hair loss was indeed, at least for Victoria, something worse than having a mastectomy in her viewpoint.

However, Derbyshire was thankful and grateful for the wig that helped her live her life normally. But Derbyshire knew it was time for the wig to go. Upon removing her wig, Victoria revealed a full head of hair.

“This is my new hair.”

With about 12 months of hair growth since chemo finished, Victoria removed her wig and played around with her real and natural hair for her Facebook viewers. Derbyshire admitted that she was apprehensive about taking her wig off because she said it was not her, showing just how closely she identified with her wig.

Victoria stated that she knew it didn’t really matter what her hair looked like, but that seeing her full head of hair gave her hope, and her viral hope is likely giving hope to many others who worry about hair growth after hair loss. Once chemo is complete, hair does grow back, Derbyshire said. She went to say that she knew it sounded irrational and absurd, but during a person’s darkest moments in going through chemotherapy, they may not realize that hair will grow back for many people. Derbyshire convinced other cancer survivors that the body does slowly renew itself once chemo is complete and there’s something really optimistic about that.

It’s not the first time that Victoria has had to deal with hair issues in public. As reported by the Daily Mail, Victoria was criticized by a BBC viewer who wrote a letter to Derbyshire saying that TV anchors and their “long lank hair” needed to “sort it out” or otherwise the person would switch off the TV. The letter writer said they were sick of seeing women on TV with the same haircut, as if they were clones. The author likely didn’t know that Victoria was wearing a wig in order to cover her hair loss from chemo treatments.

As seen in the top photo above, Victoria attended the Pride Of Britain awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel on October 31, 2016, in London, England.

[Featured Image by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]