In 2017, I was the lead author of a qualitative study about Cancer-Related Hair Loss and the Cancer Council Victoria Wig Service.
The study was presented at the 13th Behavioural Research in Cancer Control (BRCC) conference in May 2017, but it has not been published elsewhere, so I have saved it here for posterity.
It presents an in-depth exploration of the challenges faced by a group of people experiencing chemotherapy-induced alopecia. As part of the study I conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with patients who had experienced cancer-related hair loss and who had attended the Cancer Council Victoria Wig Service in St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
The interviews were transcribed by students from the Master of Nursing Science course at the University of Melbourne and thematically analysed under my supervision. I undertook the final write-up and conference presentation with the guidance of senior Cancer Council Victoria researchers.
The study had ethical approval from Cancer Council Victoria’s Institutional Research Review Committee.
Unfortunately, the Cancer Council Victoria Wig Service closed shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic and has not reopened.
Read it here: Cancer-Related Hair Loss and the Cancer Council Victoria Wig Service.
Header image: Synthetic Wigs (collage) by the author.