“Hair grows back” is what my mom’s oncologist said that day we met to discuss treatment options.

This was after he’d detailed the side effects of her treatment ad nauseam (pun intended). I thought that was such an awkward thing to say in light of the situation. He’d just explained to her that she could die (yes, death!) and her comfort was that her hair would grow back?

Even more awkward… my mom asked the doctor when exactly he expected her hair to grow back.

He went on to explained that it was different for everyone and told a joke of a woman with dull wispy hair whose hair grew back curly, thick and bouncy after chemotherapy, the joke is that whenever she’s asked where she got her hair done she says “the BC Cancer Agency.”

My mom’s hair started growing back a few weeks after she finished radiation, in patches and uneven. She agreed to cut it, it grew back again, faster this time a little uneven but better than before. She cut it a second time.

This is my mom’s hair about two weeks ago, after her third cut, she’s now convinced her hair grows faster with every cut.

The texture has changed and it’s greyer now, but she doesn’t mind.

She wears it proudly and gets compliments daily, don’t ask me how many times she’s told that joke.

I get asked a lot how my mom is doing, sometimes I feel people think I’m putting on a brave face when I say she’s well.

But really, she is. We’re all doing well. What a difference a year makes.

Maybe the hair growing back signifies a return to normalcy, or a new kind of normal.

Our lives are slowly being returned to the way things were before it was that other way.