I get a lot of customers ask me “what does Lace Front mean?” – well Lace Front wig are usually on styles that do not have bangs.  They are for off the face styles to give you a natural realistic hairline along your hairline.  Some lace front wigs do come with a good 1-2 inches of lace sticking out of the front hairline and you do have trim off yourself – this is easy and you cut it back close the edge of the wig – leaving about 1cm sticking out to rest on your forehead.  A lot of the lace front styles by Raquel Welch and Jon Renau for example only have a tiny little piece of lace extending from the middle section of your front hairline and there are a few strands of hair attached to the lace piece – giving the illusion of hair growth from your head and it sits softly on your skin with no glue or tape.  Some of the “full lace” wigs you see on celebrities where they are wearing their hair up do require glue all the way around and these types of styles are not practical for every day wear.  But the easy to wear lace front wigs from Raquel Welch, Jon Renau, Envy, Revlon etc are great for every day wear.  Here are a couple close up images of models wearing lace front wigs and an image of the cap itself so you can see the lace piece.  Last picture is of me in Zara Lace Front wig by Jon Renau.

Cancer has always been a familiar word from where I come from.  Two of my grand-parents plus many aunts and uncles went through the disease and many died along the way, the opponent being stronger than they were or should I say than the therapies have made them… In addition, my father has been working most of his life treating patients at the hospital.

So when the doctor told me, in September 2005, I had stage 3 breast cancer (advanced breast cancer), at 38 years old while my kids were 6 months old and 4 years old, my step-daughter was 7 years old (I just stopped breastfeeding to go back to work, before, I thought the lump was due to blocked milk canals and even if my son was crying to be breastfed every hour I thought it was due to his premature state).  I couldn’t believe my doctor told me I would survive only one year if I was lucky…

Before my dream of motherhood became real, I’ve had 3 miscarriages at 3 or 4 months of pregnancy, then I had a fourth miscarriage at 5 weeks in between my kids so how cruel life was to finally grant me those two wonderful kids if it was to make me leave them as orphans so soon?  I was not ready to give up the fight and decided I would do my best to survive: first 4 cycles of chemotherapy (the tumor was too big to try surgery, chances were it was tied to my ribs and we needed to make it shrink) before taking it out of my body along with 19 axillary lymph nodes.  Many of my nodes were positive and despite the 9cm diameter of tumor they took away, it was bigger and they had to do another surgery.

I started 2006 at the hospital.  Then a few months later, after going through chemo again and radiation oncology, we talked about my family history which was very bad in terms of genetics and what I could do to survive and be there for my family… It was crystal clear I had to get rid of my breasts and my ovaries, tubes and uterus… It was possible to have a breast reconstruction done right after the double mastectomy so in 4 years and a half, I went through 7 surgeries and thought my skies had finally cleared out and that it was time for sun to shine…

I worked with the Breast Cancer Foundation of Quebec as a spokesperson for hope, life and dreams… I have been walking the CIBC Run for the cure for 4 years now… Cancer brought me a totally new insight on priorities… My family, friends and colleagues were all very supportive…

Back pain and belly pain started two years ago.  I even started having problems walking because my hip was hurting. My ribs were hurting me, I thought I broke them while working (as a rep, I have a physical job carrying boxes, opening my car trunk about 20 times per day).  All of the tests that were done came back negative until my December 23^rd 2010 bone scan showing metastasis everywhere on my skeleton…

I went through radiation-therapy twice, anti-hormonotherapy, chemotherapy (7 cycles that haven’t worked their magic plus so far 2 cycles of another agent).  My case is now terminal.  They can’t say how many weeks or months but I now have, aside from bones, fast-growing liver metastases as well as something on my right lung.  Still, I refuse to believe my life can be over. At 44, I want to see my kids grow up, meet my grand-kids but I want to still raise money for cancer research because mine is genetic and there’s a good chance my kids have my genes, a mutated BRCA-2 gene, linked to breast, ovarian, prostate and probably skin and pancreas cancers… Usually, that BRCA-2 gene was supposed to repair damage done to the genetic material (DNA), but since it is “broken” it is deficient.  I also want research to continue to have some nicer treatment options for the patients who sometimes give up because of harsh side effects or become so immunosuppressed that they die from infections that would normally be inoffensive…  Also, I wish men and women would do their auto-exam searching for lumps.

Through that journey, family, friends and colleagues have been there but also people I’ve met along the way, people you talk with and become friend with, even without ever having met them…  This is what happened with Liz of Gorgeous Hair, thanks to her I could cover my bald head with beautiful wigs to keep me warm and make me feel…healthy again!

Diane Raymond

Nov. 18^th 2011