One unexpected outcome from my cancer therapies has been the arrival of curly hair.

I should not have been shocked. Regrowth in curls after chemotherapy happens often. My late friend Laura Ben-David, who passed in 2025 following her ovarian cancer struggle, wore beautiful curls near the end.

These new curls connect to a lengthy personal journey with hair and reflect broader cultural shifts through changing styles over time.

Sociologist Rose Weitz notes in her book Rapunzel's Daughters that hair ranks among the earliest signals of personal identity.

UCLA historian Robin D.G. Kelley agrees, stating that style reveals history through the body in meaningful ways.

My account starts in grade school, when parental choices kept my hair short and conventional.

Junior high in the early 1970s brought change. I adopted a Beatles-inspired cut with heavy bangs, though the cultural wave had passed a decade earlier.

The priority was covering my ears to resemble the hippies of Haight-Ashbury, despite limited understanding of that world.

At that stage my appearance lacked strong masculine traits, leading to an awkward classroom moment when a substitute teacher addressed the young lady in the back row.

That was me, sparking laughter and earning the nickname Briana for years afterward.

High school kept the ear-covering length while allowing attempts at facial hair to match progressive rock figures, most sporting beards.

A tenth-grade mustache effort drew a teacher's suggestion to use a marker for fuller effect.

Another summer saw a middle-part experiment that ended after relentless teasing from a classmate, prompting a return to the side part.

College finally permitted a full beard and mustache, retained for two decades. During two Oberlin years I avoided all trims, appearing in photos with a revolutionary look I did not fully embody.

Senior spring brought a bold plan to shave everything and surprise classmates with a new identity, thwarted by cold weather and a recognizable jacket.

Hair grew shorter with age. The 1990s in Israel favored close-cropped styles, though I stopped short of complete baldness.

COVID in 2020 ended visits to my longtime barber, shifting trims to my wife at home for convenience and frequency.

Two years prior, a cancer diagnosis prompted defiant beard regrowth, closer to stubble than bold statement.

Last year brought another shift unrelated to trends. R-CHOP chemotherapy caused widespread hair loss on head, limbs, and underarms, though eyebrows remained.

Curly hair after cancer therapy

Months following life-saving CAR-T treatment a year ago, hair returned. My wife spotted thick curls first on the left rear side, spreading upward and across.

She enjoyed them. I, after 65 years of straight hair, felt uncertain about managing curls.

Though pleasing at first, the curls grew difficult to control. A trim restored order but removed many curls temporarily, with expectation they will return.

When they do, a balanced style blending neatness and freedom will be worn proudly as evidence of bodily strength and its distinctive expressions across years of change.

The writer's book, TOTALED: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World, appeared earlier this year as an audiobook, available in print, e-book and audio editions.