When Rhiannon Thomas lost her hair during chemotherapy, just weeks after having a mastectomy, her self-confidence was at an all-time low.
But participating in a photo shoot for a campaign that celebrates the resilience of women affected by breast cancer helped her discover an inner strength she didn't know she had.
“For the first time, I feel like I look beautiful, confident and strong,” says the 36-year-old mother.
She adds: "It's amazing how much strength you find in yourself when you go through such difficult times."
Rhiannon, a mother of two daughters aged 14 and nine, was diagnosed with breast cancer after discovering a lump during her shower in November last year.
“I completely collapsed,” the teaching assistant said.
She added: “How can you tell your children? I was too afraid to even tell them.”
Since then, Rhiannon has undergone a mastectomy and chemotherapy, and is currently receiving radiotherapy.
When her hair started falling out during chemotherapy, she decided to shave her head, but she wanted to make the experience as positive as possible for her two daughters.
She encouraged her youngest daughter to play the role of hairdresser, and left her free to use scissors as she wished, before using a razor.
“I told her: ‘Cut whatever you want, because it will fall out anyway,’” Rhiannon said.
She added: "I wanted to turn a difficult matter into a joyful experience for my children and me as well, because I did not want them to see me sad, and my daughter loved that."
Footage she took on her phone shows the family laughing at their home in Abertrador, near Caerphilly, while her daughter unleashes her creativity with scissors.
But after that, in private moments away from the eyes of others, the radical change in her appearance was difficult for her.
“I remember looking in the mirror and crying because I simply didn’t recognize myself anymore,” she says.
Rhiannon's tears fell as she recalled the expressions on her parents' faces when they saw her for the first time after shaving her head.
Since then, she has been wearing a head covering whenever she leaves the house.
It all sounds very familiar to Sam Gronow-Walters, a mental health nurse and mother of two.
Sam, 44, also lost her hair due to breast cancer treatment.
But her cancer is incurable.
She was first diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer five years ago and was successfully treated with intravenous chemotherapy, lumpectomy, radiotherapy, and then oral chemotherapy.
But seven months later, she discovered another mass, and tests showed that the cancer had returned.
She then underwent a mastectomy and was informed that there was no longer any trace of cancer.
In 2024, she was informed that the disease had spread to her lung. Last July, tests showed that it had also spread to her liver and lymph nodes.
“You have to keep going,” says Sam, from St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
“You just have to do everything you can, because I want to see my children grow up,” she adds.
Like Rhiannon, when Sam felt she had no choice but to shave her head, she thought about how to make it easier for her two children, her 20-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son.
Her son asked her to shave her head, leaving a little hair in the front, in imitation of the famous hairstyle of Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo in the 2002 World Cup, so she complied with his request.
"For me, this is a very happy memory. He will see that even when I am sick, I can still have fun, smile, make my children happy and make them laugh," she said.
As with Rhiannon, Sam was worried about the effect her new look would have on her children.
“I used to ask my son when I took him to school: ‘Do you mind if I don’t wear a hat?’” she recalls.
He would answer her: “Why would I care?”
Rhiannon and Sam first met after they signed up to take part in the breast cancer charity BOLD Wales' Pink Ribbon campaign.
The campaign celebrates the courage and confidence of women who have lost their hair due to breast cancer treatment.
With the participation of nine other Welsh women, Rhiannon and Sam spent a day in the Welsh capital, Cardiff, where they were photographed by Dutch photographer Caroline Sicknick.
The photos are scheduled to be displayed at Piccadilly Lights in the British capital, London, next month.
Both women were nervous about the photo shoot, but said the experience was very exhilarating.
“It was as if we all knew each other before we met that day, and we still keep in touch now,” Sam said.
As for Rhiannon, she has never spoken to another woman who lost her hair during cancer treatment.
“I felt really safe, and I didn’t feel like anyone was judging me,” she said.
Seeing the photos for the first time was a moving experience for both of them.
“I thought: ‘Oh my God!’” said Rhiannon, who felt proud of the courage it took to participate in the photo shoot at a very sensitive stage in her life.
As for Sam, she barely recognized herself.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s not me,’” she said.
She added: "I was very proud to show the pictures to my family and tell them: This is me."
The BOLD initiative began in 2022, when Lisa Allen of the Pink Ribbon Foundation met photographer Carolyn Sicknick during a breast cancer conference.
Caroline had spent years photographing women who had lost their hair due to illness.
“What caught our attention in her photos was that these women did not look sick. They were strong, beautiful, and completely themselves,” Lisa said.
The first photo shoot for the BOLD campaign took place in 2023.
Both Rhiannon and Sam said that participating in the project gave them new strength and a sense of optimism.
Rhiannon said: “I feel like my self-confidence and positivity have become stronger thanks to the photo session.”
She added: "I left there feeling very confident and completely free, as if I no longer had to hide."
Since then, she has given up her head covering, and proudly displaying her shaved head has become normal for her.
As for Sam, the photo session helped her accept herself.
“This is me now, and I will never grow my hair long again,” she says.
She adds: “Hair loss does not define me. It is just a symbol that I am overcoming this ordeal and that I am strong.”
