Facing chemo-related hair loss, Georgia mom turns to cosmetology students for 'chemo cut'

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Inside Keune Academy by 124 in Lawrenceville, 39-year-old Jennifer Willen is bracing for a haircut she has been dreading: a chemo cut.

"It's not what I wanted to do," Willen says. "This is not the route I wanted to take."

Willen, who is married to a FOX 5 photojournalist and has a 3- and 4-year-old, Adeline and Jacob, was diagnosed with HER2+ breast cancer Aug. 7, just 3 years after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).

"I was actually booking an appointment for a breast reduction surgery because of the multiple sclerosis," she says. "I have a lot of back pain, so I thought this might help."

So, she got a pre-surgery mammogram, which is required.

"They caught the cancer by accident," Willen says. "So, I'm grateful for that. But, you know, it wasn't really the road we were going down, and it was just really hard to add another diagnosis on top of the MS."  

As she began chemotherapy, her hair began to fall out.

"I woke up and, you know, it's on my pillow, it's all over me," Willen says, her voice choking with emotion. "And … it was hard because it hit that this is really happening."

So, she turned to the cosmetology students at Keune Academy by 124.

"I came to kind of cut it short and wait to see how long it takes for it to fall out, and then I'll go ahead and do the shave," Willen says.

Kayleigh Kummer and Diana Bahena work as a team. Kummer does the cutting, Bahena follows up with styling.

"I was very nervous going into it," Kummer says.

Bahena says she was a little apprehensive, too, with so much at stake.

"I was excited as well, because I've never experienced this," she says. "Her hair was falling off, and we need to learn how to be gentle with the hair."

Willen was one of the last clients Bahena and Kummer were assigned to cut before graduating as master cosmetologists.

"It's just one of those moments where, like, you just have to be there to understand and grasp how everyone is feeling, and how she's feeling," Kummer says. "I wanted to make sure that what she wanted is what she got. And, I wanted to make sure she still felt like she has a say in it."

When the two are finished, Willen's hair has been chopped into a smooth bob. She smiles.

"I thought it was going to feel like, way more dramatic. But I'm actually feeling really confident and good about it," she says. "A part of this is a lot about control. And, I feel like I still have control right now and how I look. And that's exactly the feeling I needed today."

But the story of Willen's "chemo cut" has one more chapter.

A couple of days after her haircut, she says her hair really started falling out.

"I was feeling good about it," Willen says. "And, then, you know, life took over and it started shedding even more,"

So, rather than waiting to lose more hair, Willen asked a barber to take it all off.

"Of course, it was dramatic, but it wasn't this terrible feeling," she says. "You know, I felt almost free of it. Now, I'm free of the shedding all over my pillows and looking at the hair all over the house. So, it felt good."

Talking to FOX 5 on a Zoom call from her family's backyard in Michigan a day after her third round of chemotherapy, Willen says she was nervous about how her buzz cut would look.

"But, once it was done, I was really not that scared of it," she says. "I did buy a wig, but I haven't been wearing it around. I've been just kind of doing my scarves. And I think it's part of my journey. And I'm rocking it right now. "

Luckily, she says her kids tell her she looks cool with her shaved head.