London - Women being treated for cancer would rather lose their breasts than go bald through chemotherapy, according to hairdresser Trevor Sorbie.
The celebrity stylist, whose clients have included The Beatles and Helen Mirren, now devotes himself full time to cutting wigs for cancer patients.
He insists that giving women back their hair is as vital as the work of doctors and nurses.
“Hair is one thing that is always on show. I’ve heard lots of women say ‘I’d rather lose my breasts than my hair’,” he said.
“I was quite shocked when I first heard that. But when I thought about it, you put clothes on, you cover yourself up. Cancer is invisible until you lose your hair.”
His charity, My New Hair, offers free consultations to cancer patients and trains other hairdressers to cut wigs into convincing and fashionable shapes. He added: “If you see a women walking down the street with no hair, you don’t think of alopecia… You think she’s got cancer. And when someone knows you have cancer they treat you completely differently. Most people don’t know what to say, so they don’t say anything.”
Sorbie says he has helped “thousands” of women so far, including one patient who wanted to look good for her wedding hours before she died in a hospice bed.
He decided to set up his charity after helping fit his sister-in-law Jackie – who has since died – with a wig in 2005. He said: “She wanted a wig to look attractive to my brother. When I put it on it didn’t look great. So I customised it and when she looked in the mirror she burst out crying with tears of joy.” - Daily Mail