Mary Sutcliffe knew the effects of cancer long before her own diagnosis. Mary’s grandmother, Murphy Finnerty, died from ovarian cancer, and Mary’s mother, Colleen, is a proud and thriving breast cancer survivor. 

Two years after Colleen’s diagnosis, Mary found a lump in her own breast during a routine self-examination. Doctors told her not to worry, but she knew better. Mary was diagnosed with Stage 3B triple-negative breast cancer, and her resulting treatment was quick and aggressive, and included a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. She was 32 years old. 

Mary—a professional hair colorist—can still recall the overwhelming amount of information thrown at her in the days following her diagnosis and leading up to her treatment. She worried not only about her physical health, but about her emotional health, as well. As her chemotherapy started, Mary felt depressed, scared, and unprepared for the symptoms—the sweats, the fatigue, and especially the hair loss. 

Within weeks of starting chemo, Mary’s hair began to fall out in the shower. Her best friend and caretaker Jennie—who works as a professional hair stylist—helped Mary navigate this early hair loss by starting precuts; together they took Mary’s long hair to a lob, then to a bob, until Mary was ready to shave her head. But even that giant step felt like a beginning. 

“When you have cancer and are undergoing treatment, it feels like you’re stuck in quicksand while everyone else is moving forward,” Mary says. “People can look at you as some sort of hero, so it’s easy to want to make them feel comfortable about what’s happening to you, but the irony for me was I never more unlike myself and so out of control.”

Instead of bending to others, Mary realized she wanted to make herself—and eventually others like her—feel confident and proud of what they were going through. For Mary, this meant forgoing wearing wigs, and embracing her freshly shaved head. It also meant listening to the pull she felt to help others navigate their own chemo-related hair loss. Mary and Jennie rallied their community of hair professionals to start Road to Bald, which would eventually evolve to become Chemo Cuts Collective.

Mary knows first-hand that during and after chemo, feelings of resolve and fortitude can waver. Just as cancer does not end with cancer treatment, Chemo Cuts Collective is committed to seeing patients through both sides of their hair journey, down their road to bald and back again.

Read how it works.