Single Bald Female

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Right before I was diagnosed with cancer, I’d been admiring a colleague’s pixie cut. Her face was a similar shape to mine, and I found myself wondering what I’d look like if I ever had the guts to cut my hair like that. But I didn’t have the guts, partly because of the beauty standards I’d been held to in Brazil and by the glossy magazines I’d grown up reading. I was also influenced by what men thought of me – when I cut my hair into a Lily Allen-inspired bob circa 2010, my girlfriends loved it, but a male friend said he preferred it long. I was single and naively figured I might not find a boyfriend if I kept my hair short. ‘I found myself wondering what I’d look like if I ever had the guts to cut my hair like that. But I didn’t have the guts, partly because of the beauty standards I’d been held to . . .’ Thuli Madonsela speaks about the importance of SA's political future in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

But there’s a difference between a shaved head for fashion, and hair loss from cancer. With the former, you have a thin layer of hair and you often have your eyebrows and lashes. With the latter, you lose your sideburns, your brows, your lashes and even the thin layer of downy hair on your face. For me, it was the loss of my sideburns, brows and lashes that really hit me. I felt naked and vulnerable. Without those things to frame my face, I looked like a cancer patient, and sadly no amount of make-up could make me look normal. ‘Hair loss is never like it is in the films. ’ In the midst of it all, she meets Annabel, an enigmatic twenty-seven year old with incurable cancer. But while Annabel may not have long left, she understands much more about living than anyone Jess has ever met. And she’s determined to show Jess how to make every day count . . .Simply put, I think bald women are beautiful': author Laura Price on what losing her hair to breast cancer taught her about beauty As every cancer patient knows, life is short, and there’s no point putting off your dreams for some distant future day that might never come. I fulfilled my childhood dream to write a novel and I’m so proud of it. When will you write yours? Four years later, I began to write. Instead of memoir, I opted for fiction, creating characters, friendships and love stories to escape my own world. Although cancer is the saddest of subjects, I peppered the novel with humour – I wanted it to be uplifting because no one wants to read a book that makes them cry from start to finish. By the time active treatment ended, I wanted to meet someone, but was unsure what to write on my dating profile. I settled on the truth, listing myself as a ‘single, bald (possibly infertile) female’.

Then, just three months after my book launch, after suffering from pain in my sternum, I found out the cancer had spread to my bones and was now incurable. A whole 10 years had passed since my primary diagnosis. I was distraught – I had only just met the love of my life – but I also found myself filled with gratitude. I had a whole decade of being cancer-free, and I stuffed it full with life. I wrote the book I’d wanted to write since I was that little girl scribbling in her diary every day.Find a writing community. Writing is a lonely business and it’s easy to throw in the towel. Instead of sharing your work with friends and family (who will only say nice things), find a group of fellow writers who will give you honest, constructive criticism and encouragement. Read, read, read. Read everything you can get your hands on, within your own genre and outside it. This will feed your brain while helping you to hone your own writing style.

A decade after her diagnosis, Laura Price found that writing her novel, Single Bald Female, not only helped her to process her grief, but also provided her legacy. The novel isn’t about my own life, but writing it helped me to process my grief through my characters and everything they represent. When a blog I wrote about my dating experience went viral, I realised how little information there was about young women and cancer, and that I could use my voice to help others. I created characters, friendships and love stories to escape my world Author Laura Price (Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, 2005) and literary agent Sophie Lambert (English & German, 1999) are proud to have published Laura’s debut novel, Single Bald Female. Laura writes about her experience of publishing a novel here…Breast Cancer Now is a company limited by guarantee registered in England (9347608) and a charity registered Around her, her friends’ lives continue to follow the script, with the big white weddings and the baby scans. With her own future so uncertain, the only thing Jess is sure of is that she’s being left behind. But then she meets Annabel, an enigmatic twenty-seven year old with incurable cancer. While Annabel may not have long left, she understands much more about living than anyone Jess has ever met. And she’s determined to show Jess how to make every day count . . . Witty and charming characters, twists and turns, and quietly devastating moments' Justin Myers, The Guyliner Frank, funny and poignant, Single Bald Female by Laura Price is a completely unforgettable story of love and friendship.

Single Bald Female was published in April 2022, and seeing it in the window of Waterstones was one of the proudest moments of my life. Cancer may have taken away my chance of future motherhood, but I had created my own legacy. Don’t put off your dreams for a distant day that might never come Do your research. To have a book published, you’ll need an agent. The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is a brilliant resource to help you figure out how it works. Class Notes Single Bald Female: A bold memoir on alumna’s journey with cancer Laura Price (Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, 2005) I didn’t stop writing entirely – I blogged my way through surgery, chemo and radiotherapy – but my upbeat, humour-laden articles didn’t reflect the real fear and sadness I felt. I’m sad that I can’t read my journals from that time, but I made up for it with my novel, Single Bald Female. I listed myself on my dating profile as a ‘single, bald (possibly infertile) female’

Inspiring, candid and beautifully observed. Single Bald Female is an extraordinary, hugely moving story about the fight for survival. Life-affirming, tear-jerking and gorgeously written, I was sobbing at the end, and you will be too So when I lost my long hair during chemotherapy after I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29, it didn’t feel like the end of the world. In some ways, it was an opportunity.