About My Hair: A Journey to Recovery

Rating:
Summary: A must read for all whose lives have been affected by cancer
Review: "About My Hair" is a poignant and well told story with incredible photgraphs to aid in YOUR journey into Marcia Reid Marsted's life and her bout with cancer. It is a very personal work of art which chronicles so much of what one must go through when faced with the disease. I believe that it is a "must-read" for all cancer patients and their families and friends as well as members of the medical profession who are charged with healing and supporting their patients through some of the most difficult times of their lives. I also feel that this book is helpful to anyone who is concerned about themselves and others. There is much insight related to taking care of oneself and trusting your instincts when it comes to your own body. In her honesty, the author also helps us to maintain a positive attitude and appreciate the little things in life that we all sometimes take for granted.I have incredible respect and admiration for Ms. Marsted and appreciate her willingness to share such a personal story with us.

Rating:
Summary: A New Angle on Cancer
Review: About My Hair provides both visual and verbal insight into what it is like to go through changes brought about by cancer and chemotherapy. Marcia Reid Marsted's lens is clear and her focus sharp as she captures her experience through elegant and compelling photographs and prose. The book provides guidance as well as perspective. What is surprising and captivating are the intimacy and optimism presented in this realistic view. I have given this book to friends who are going through cancer treatments and they have expressed gratitude for the clarity and wisdom it offers.

Rating:
Summary: A New Angle on Cancer
Review: About My Hair provides both visual and verbal insight into what it is like to go through changes brought about by cancer and chemotherapy. Marcia Reid Marsted's lens is clear and her focus sharp as she captures her experience through elegant and compelling photographs and prose. The book provides guidance as well as perspective. What is surprising and captivating are the intimacy and optimism presented in this realistic view. I have given this book to friends who are going through cancer treatments and they have expressed gratitude for the clarity and wisdom it offers.

Rating:
Summary: A Moving and Inspired Book
Review: About My Hair, A Journey to Recovery, is a moving and inspired book of images and personal observations chronicled by the author during her experience of chemotherapy. In a brilliant use of synecdoche, Ms. Marsted focuses on a PART of her experience, the issue of her hair loss during chemotherapy, as a way to convey the experience of the WHOLE, which is the life and death struggle that is anyone's battle with cancer. Ms. Marsted is professional photographer who uses the power of image to help demystify and make very clear the experience of hair loss during chemotherapy and its impact on self-image. By sharing photographs of herself, her thoughts, and her husband's thoughts throughout this process, she offers reassurance and a sense of community to anyone who has or will confront this trial. The book is also interspersed with a selection of the author's very beautiful art photographs which both offset and augment the text that they accompany. A gentle and important work. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Moving and Inspired Book
Review: About My Hair, A Journey to Recovery, is a moving and inspired book of images and personal observations chronicled by the author during her experience of chemotherapy. In a brilliant use of synecdoche, Ms. Marsted focuses on a PART of her experience, the issue of her hair loss during chemotherapy, as a way to convey the experience of the WHOLE, which is the life and death struggle that is anyone's battle with cancer. Ms. Marsted is professional photographer who uses the power of image to help demystify and make very clear the experience of hair loss during chemotherapy and its impact on self-image. By sharing photographs of herself, her thoughts, and her husband's thoughts throughout this process, she offers reassurance and a sense of community to anyone who has or will confront this trial. The book is also interspersed with a selection of the author's very beautiful art photographs which both offset and augment the text that they accompany. A gentle and important work. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Me too, Marcia
Review: It was early April 1999. I hadn't seen her in quite a while. I always enjoy working at Marcia's home. A photographic artist, creativity weaves like a thread through the fabric of her life and her home reflects her free spiritedness. I can't remember a visit to Marcia's house that wasn't both a challenge and an adventure. Unlike many of my less involved clients, Marcia usually knew what she wanted and I merely acted as a conduit to direct her electric inspiration to the ground!

Something seemed different this time, though. She had a look... her face a gauntness uncharacteristic of this absolutely fit and vivacious woman. I knew Marcia as an "aeroboholic" who had found some religion in her training. And her hair seemed unusual... not Marcia, not Marcia's hair. She confided to me some scant detail concerning her ordeal with uterine cancer.

I can admit being a little afraid, not of Marcia but what she represented. I don't do well with mortality, even after having a few close calls myself. Less so with the big "C". My mom died of lung cancer when I was 17. At that time there was no formal familial support. (Is there any now?) No one talked to me about what was going on... I of the large Italian family. No one directly told me she had cancer, as if it could be kept secret. Lots of vague, around the edges inferences. I was detached and floating in suffocating mist. She died while I was away at college. The goodbyes were very cold.

I saw Marcia a number of times of that year, in April, June, July and November. The July visit was perhaps the most memorable. When I walked in the door, I found Marcia hairless. Actually, she had been hairless for quite a while but I had closed my second eyelids and had not wanted to see. She flipped it off, saying "I would have put the wig on, but I don't care if you see me this way." She was coming to grips with her new self and I was being pulled along. I didn't mind. I have been in countless homes and seen countless wigs shrouding chemotherapy's bittersweet legacy. "Hey... it's my hair... really!" the wigs shout, but at the same time whisper, "Do me a favor and play along, okay?"

Marcia has chronicled her journey in a book entitled, "About My Hair, A Journey To Recovery". A book was never her intention, but she was encouraged to publish by other artists who realized the value of her images. It is a short read with unashamed self-photography... she is a photographer first. In those few words she captures the essence of a struggle only a woman may face and few men could hope to understand.

Marcia has a website where you can view some of her work and also read some excerpts from "About My Hair". I encourage anyone who may be touched by cancer to find some inspiration and hope here. As Marcia says in her closing remarks, "The work helped me maintain my positive attitude and has pushed me to places where I surely wouldn't otherwise have gone." Me too, Marcia.

Jerry Alonzy, The Natural Handyman


Rating:
Summary: About My Hair - An Artistic Response to Cancer
Review: Marcia Reid Marsted's sensitive account of her second cancer is beautifully illustrated with her soft-focus photographs, an artistic process she chose to support herself through her healing. This is a candid portrayal of one woman's experience as she courageously faces her illness. "I had life on my mind," she states as she moves forward. Written in sparse prose of poetic quality, the vignettes connect to complete a story of dignity and hope. Comments by the author's husband add perspective to the narrative. This book is important reading for everyone, especially those with cancer and their partners, families and friends and people working in the medical profession. Resources at the end of the book provide vital information for all.

Rating:
Summary: Is it about hair?
Review: Marcia says her book is about her hair, and, in a small way, she is right. She had hair and then lost it to chemotherapy. But the chemo killed her cancer and, in time, she got her hair back. This book documents that loss and recovery. But Marcia is overly modest. This book is not about her hair, but about her spirit. She fought uterine cancer and won. And along the way she fought and won against fear, grief, pain, embarrassment, and foes I can't even imagine.
What Marcia doesn't say - what she may not acknowledge even to herself - is precisely what makes her book important. No reader can fail to catch it. My job as reviewer is to make it explicit for those who haven't read her book, for those who are wondering if they should read it. Here it is: Marcia is a champion at coping and her book offers instruction and inspiration to all who face foes or worry that they might have to in the future.
"Some days I felt as though I just wanted to sit around and do nothing. I didn't allow that feeling to last long. The worst thing, for me, would be to let the cancer or the treatment take over my life. I would mentally pick myself up and go do something...I never believed in the logic of asking 'why me?' or being angry at the unfairness of life....better get on with life."
Cancer took Marcia's hair and her uterus and ovaries and her energy and physical strength and a good bit of her joy of life, but it never dented her spirit. When cruel death came to look Marcia in the face, she chose to be creative.
"I made a conscious effort to keep up with my art. Sometimes I had to give myself a mental push. It would have been easy to use my illness as an excuse to be a lump... I needed something to think about besides my various doctor and hospital visits."
Marcia's words and photos are interesting, provocative, beautiful, and optimistic. They tell of a spirit that isn't vulnerable to death and they give us reason to believe that we all share in that spirit. There's one more point - Marcia's book is about her husband - his love for her and her quiet gratitude for him. It's a small part of her small book and rather matter of fact, not sentimental, but eloquent in its testimony to the role of love in sustaining spirit and vice versa. There's even a hint that the two may not be different.
Read this book. You'll finish it in a half hour and remember it for a lifetime. It's not about hair.

Rating:
Summary: Is it about hair?
Review: Marcia says her book is about her hair, and, in a small way, she is right. She had hair and then lost it to chemotherapy. But the chemo killed her cancer and, in time, she got her hair back. This book documents that loss and recovery. But Marcia is overly modest. This book is not about her hair, but about her spirit. She fought uterine cancer and won. And along the way she fought and won against fear, grief, pain, embarrassment, and foes I can't even imagine.
What Marcia doesn't say - what she may not acknowledge even to herself - is precisely what makes her book important. No reader can fail to catch it. My job as reviewer is to make it explicit for those who haven't read her book, for those who are wondering if they should read it. Here it is: Marcia is a champion at coping and her book offers instruction and inspiration to all who face foes or worry that they might have to in the future.
"Some days I felt as though I just wanted to sit around and do nothing. I didn't allow that feeling to last long. The worst thing, for me, would be to let the cancer or the treatment take over my life. I would mentally pick myself up and go do something...I never believed in the logic of asking 'why me?' or being angry at the unfairness of life....better get on with life."
Cancer took Marcia's hair and her uterus and ovaries and her energy and physical strength and a good bit of her joy of life, but it never dented her spirit. When cruel death came to look Marcia in the face, she chose to be creative.
"I made a conscious effort to keep up with my art. Sometimes I had to give myself a mental push. It would have been easy to use my illness as an excuse to be a lump... I needed something to think about besides my various doctor and hospital visits."
Marcia's words and photos are interesting, provocative, beautiful, and optimistic. They tell of a spirit that isn't vulnerable to death and they give us reason to believe that we all share in that spirit. There's one more point - Marcia's book is about her husband - his love for her and her quiet gratitude for him. It's a small part of her small book and rather matter of fact, not sentimental, but eloquent in its testimony to the role of love in sustaining spirit and vice versa. There's even a hint that the two may not be different.
Read this book. You'll finish it in a half hour and remember it for a lifetime. It's not about hair.