A Fort Worth woman who battled cancer this year has made it to remission, just in time for the holidays.
A second chance on life is the best gift she could ask for but she has one more wish on her list: To simply have her hair back.
A high-quality wig shop in Plano is making that wish come true for 27-year-old Miranda McLoughlin.
“It feels so good,” she said, looking at herself in the mirror during a fitting for a wig of real human hair. “My hair has never been this long in my life.”
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SENSE OF IDENTITY
Our hair can say a lot about ourselves. But to McLoughlin, it’s so much more.
She knows what it’s like to almost lose everything.
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"I didn't recognize myself in the mirror for a long time,” she said, recalling the last 9 months.
In March, she was unexpectedly diagnosed with lymphoma.
"I immediately started treatment. I did chemo and radiation, and then did a stem cell transplant,” she told NBC 5’s Alanna Quillen.
Instantly, her hair started falling out. She got one last blowout from her stylist and then shaved her head.
“I would see this bald woman looking back at me and it didn't look like myself. I didn't feel like myself,” McLoughlin said. "I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me was that it's not vain to miss your hair. It's not vain to miss the way that you used to look pre-diagnosis. And it's a really normal thing to feel like you've lost part of yourself."
During the treatment, she tried to wear wigs – but never had the chance to buy an expensive piece that would feel more like the real thing.
"It was really hard to have that sense of identity when I looked so completely different than I've been used to. Even just wearing like a cheap Party City-looking wig has helped kind of get that back because I'm just so used to having hair,” she said. "And when you're fighting for your life, it can feel stupid to miss my hair – but I do miss my hair and it's not stupid. It's important to people. It's so tied to your identity and how you see yourself – so it's ok to miss your hair."
After months of treatment came the news she had been waiting for. In early November, McLoughlin went into remission.
"So my hair is growing back, my skin is getting back to normal. My life is getting back to normal,” she said.
But something was still missing. And that’s where local business Silk or Lace of Plano stepped in.
A NEW (OUT)LOOK
“It's kind of like breaking in shoes,” said shop owner, Suran Yoo, during a wig fitting with McLoughlin.
To celebrate her remission, Yoo is gifting McLoughlin with a high-quality wig of real human hair for the holidays.
Silk or Lace provides high-quality wigs and toppers to help people who have been affected by hair loss.
"We provide confidence to women to feel like themselves again,” said Yoo. "They look in the mirror and they say, ‘I found myself again. I look like me again.’ And I think that is the core of what we're trying to accomplish."
As someone who was diagnosed with alopecia at a young age, Yoo knows how devastating it feels to lose that confidence.
"I think hair is so much a bigger part of your identity than one thinks. And I think you come across it after you lose your hair,” she said.
Just in time for Christmas, McLoughlin has found a new look and a new outlook on life. The same day of the interview, she did a photoshoot with her new hair wearing a shirt that read, “In My Cancer Free Era.”
"It's really weird – like, I feel a lot more emotional than I expected to because this feels like what I looked like before I lost my hair. And this is just nice to feel like myself again,” she said. "I'm excited to be able to walk in a room and no one will guess that I had cancer."
