For people undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer, one of the most difficult side effects is losing their hair. Hair loss can have a huge emotional impact on a person’s self-esteem and can make battling cancer seem that much more daunting.
One mom decided to show the silver lining of this side effect by letting her daughter give her a totally unique cancer makeover.
By all accounts, Emilie Orton is your typical mom of three.
Like a lot of parents, Emilie’s Instagram account is filled with pictures of her kids and family milestones.
But in September, Emilie shared an Instagram post with some startling news.
The 32-year-old learned that she had stage 2 ovarian cancer.
“How is anyone supposed to actually process this? Or accept this? I’ve always been that boring person on those health history forms that marks no to everything & doesn’t even have allergies,” she said in her post announcing her recent diagnosis.
After having surgery to remove a tumor from her ovary, Emilie learned that it was malignant and she would require chemotherapy to combat the disease.
Doctors also ordered a CT scan and a number of tests to determine if the cancer had spread to other parts of her body.
The day before starting her chemo treatments, Emilie shared another candid update.
One of the most recognizable side effects of chemo is hair loss, which Emilie reflected on in her post.
“The doctor said the drugs he’s doing will definitely make me bald. No matter how many times I asked he said yes,” she wrote.
Sure enough, a few weeks after beginning the treatments, Emilie’s hair began falling out.
Even though this process has been extremely difficult for Emilie, her updates on Instagram have also given us insight into her sense of humor.
“What if my head is secretly shaped weird? Like a neglected flat spot (is that even a real thing or just my creepy mom brain?) or what if I have a cone-head because I was a ginormous baby when I came out?” she wrote in the caption for this post.
Realizing that it was time to say goodbye to her hair for now, Emilie enlisted the help of her four-year-old daughter, Norah.
Norah was more than happy to play hairdresser and give her mom a new ‘do. Emilie then uploaded the video of her “makeover” to Instagram.
According to Emilie, Norah did a “fantastic four-year-old job” on her hair.
After Norah was finished, Emilie’s husband completed the look by shaving her head, which was documented in another Instagram video.
Since uploading the videos of her transformation, Emilie has shared some updates about life with her new look. She even rocked this awesome Mr. Clean costume on Halloween.
Since she began sharing her journey online, Emilie has gone viral and many have reached out to support her.
Her honest and surprisingly funny posts about cancer have inspired others who are hoping for her quick recovery.
