Talways so solar. One year, after her testimony in “Sud Ouest” on the occasion of Pink October, the breast cancer screening awareness campaign. Muriel Saule, who lives in Dordogne, went through the ordeal of this illness, is almost the same. Except for one detail. Her pale gray hair, matching her clear, laughing eyes, has grown considerably, and on this November day it wraps around her shoulders, a sine qua non condition for giving her hair.
She chose to offer them to the company Pas d’chichi, created by Stéphanie Retailleau, a former hairdresser and wigmaker, herself suffering from cancer (read below). This does not make wigs, but pastiches, made from hair attached to all kinds of turbans.
Symbolic, in November
It is in her bright house in Saint-Médard-de-Mussidan that she invites people to share the doubly symbolic event. “Making this donation in November is even stronger for me. It’s the month of male cancer screenings, as precious as Pink October,” says the bubbly fifty-year-old.
The memory of her son’s father, who died of cancer at the age of 24, fills her eyes and breaks her voice a little. “He died six months after diagnosis. He at least had the chance to see his child for three and a half months, and our son, the chance to have the image of his father. »
Optimism and sunshine quickly return to Muriel Saule’s voice. She welcomes young Alexia Labussière, a hairdresser on parental leave, who has come with her 9-month-old granddaughter. “I chose her because she made the mullet cut for all the Mussidan rugby players, and I had thought at one point of participating with my son in the European Mule Cup,” laughs the Périgourdine.
Give during your lifetime
Very gentle, the young hairdresser takes action. She makes several quilts on Muriel’s hair, which she cuts one after the other “to hold the strand better, hair easier to treat upon reception.” In front of the duvets, placed next to each other, the emotion comes rushing back. “After the treatments and hormone therapy, I knew that I could no longer be an organ donor, it was the basis of my life,” says Muriel Saule.
Her hair, ready to go by post, shows her that she can give during her lifetime. “It is the culmination of a lot of work with the medical team, who followed me, and the psychologist from the League against Cancer in Dordogne. It’s a satisfaction that I can experience,” relishes Muriel.
His work as a medical taxi also brings him material for rich encounters. She went to part-time, on partial disability. “I had a lot of reactions after the article was published, particularly from women suffering from cancer. This is also where I understood that my shared story is also a gift. I wanted to transmit for my personal construction and my reconstruction after cancer, here I am,” smiles Muriel. The “warrior” fighter, who happily finds her ultra-short haircut, thinks she has taken a step back.
“I preferred to have my head bare to show my rebellion in the face of this illness, and to tell her that I was not afraid of it”
She hasn’t always heard the word remission, but her results are good. “Now, both breasts are monitored, I also accepted part-time work. The fatigue is there, that of the road. I will stay part-time, but I’m putting things into perspective. It’s more the person who experiences the shock who has to adapt, that’s how it is. »
“It’s no longer a taboo”
Muriel does not forget to salute this “little hand that saved her”, by feeling her breasts in 2018. “We need to talk about it a lot between women. Today, it is no longer a taboo, speech has become free. It’s no longer sexual to talk about a breast. The time has passed when we had to modestly say chest,” breathes Muriel Saule.
She doesn’t know if her hair will be usable, but what she is sure of is the usefulness, for certain men or women, of having hair when we lose it and lose our identity in the world. mirror. “I preferred to have my head bare to show my rebellion in the face of this illness, and to tell her that I was not afraid of it. » Not afraid, yes, but the happy need to transmit and guide.
His donation goes to Pas d’chichi
Muriel Saule chose to donate her hair to Pas d’chichi, a company created by Stéphanie Retailleau, from Vendée, who suffered from breast cancer in 2020. A former hairdresser and wigmaker, she makes hair prostheses with headbands, sold for 450 euros each . As she did for herself with her own hair so as not to lose her identity. New, since November 15, these hair bands have been reimbursed by Social Security up to 250 euros.
