Miranda McKeon Was Diagnosed with Breast Cancer at 19. Losing Her Hair as She Battled the Disease Was 'Pure Torture' (Exclusive)
Miranda McKeon Was Diagnosed with Breast Cancer at 19. Losing Her Hair as She Battled the Disease Was 'Pure Torture' (Exclusive)
Michelle LeeThu, June 25, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
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(Left) Miranda McKeon after she shaved her head; (Right) Miranda McKeon amid her hair growth journeyCredit: Miranda McKeon/Instagram (2) -
Miranda McKeon is opening up about her hair-regrowth journey four years after becoming cancer-free
The actress turned influencer was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer after her freshman year at the University of Southern California
McKeon tells PEOPLE about the mental toll losing hair had on her identity and how she is feeling today
"I was literally more scared of losing my hair than dying."
Actress Miranda McKeon was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at age 19, discovering the life-shaking news from a biopsy of a jelly-bean-size lump in her right breast just out of her freshman year of college.
As she was going through various forms of treatments — including eight rounds of chemotherapy and 25 sessions of radiation — on top of three surgeries, one of which was a sensation-preserving double mastectomy, the looming inevitability of hair loss during it all took a toll.
The Anne with an E actress always saw herself as a "long-haired blondie," but she became farther removed from that version of who she was as she continued her treatments. The side effect was "a very painful, miserable process" to endure; it cut so deep that not even "encouraging" messages that promised a silver lining were hard to digest. Having a hairstyle other than what she was used to felt like "pure torture."
Miranda McKeon at the 2026 TIME Women of the Year Leadership Forum on March 10, 2026Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty
"I wasn't even thinking of mortality at the time," she tells PEOPLE. "I've had an attachment to my hair since I was very young. From when I was a little kid, I would freak out if anyone but me tried to brush it. To even think about losing it, it put a nauseous pit in my stomach.
"A lot of people don't know that losing your hair is actually really uncomfortable," adds McKeon, who also says wearing hairpieces like wigs and extensions caused discomfort as she sought femininity.
It was hard for McKeon to accept the changes happening to her body, but the reality was that they were happening, and all while she was at an impressionable stage in her life.
Miranda McKeon attends the 2025 Breast Cancer Research Foundation Hot Pink PartyCredit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
In a 2024 interview with PEOPLE, the now-influencer opened up about how wearing a wig among her peers as she studied at the University of Southern California was a "super isolating" experience. Looking back, McKeon remembers grappling with the in-betweens of learning about herself while trying to navigate her new normal.
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"[College] is the time in your life where you figure out how you want to present yourself to the world, how you want to show up," she says, adding, "I felt like I was missing out on that precious time of...showing up in the world in the way that I wanted to."
McKeon sought out a form of scalp cooling called cold capping. It's a type of therapy that decreases blood flow to the scalp, therefore limiting medicine used for chemo from getting to the hair follicle cells and causing hair loss, according to the American Cancer Society. But when that didn't work, she decided to shave her head days before her final round of chemotherapy, which she was still reluctant to do.
"I was resisting because I didn't want to have a haircut that I didn't choose. That felt really suffocating," she says, then, "It didn't feel like my identity or how I would choose to present myself." But when she accepted that a buzz cut was the only option, "I was like, okay, it's time. I felt a little bit of relief and acceptance and [shaving her head] did feel empowering and liberating."
At the time, McKeon wrote on Instagram: "I have realized that I am beautiful for my contributions in conversations, for my humor and my vulnerability, for the kind of friend I am and the way that I show up for those around me. My physical beauty is the least interesting thing about me."
Her hair began growing back in dark and curly, but she was eager to return to her signature straight blonde hairstyle. Yet, as she began bleaching and styling her hair, the new strands were getting more and more damaged. She applied her new outlook on clean beauty — which she adopted when treating the scars from her double mastectomy —to her new haircare routine to get it healthy.
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McKeon, now 24 and based in New York, has been cancer-free since February 2022, and she feels "amazing."
"That doesn't mean that I don't have anxiety [over her cancer reoccurring]..." she adds, noting that she also lives with the symptoms of induced menopause. "That said, at the time of active treatment, I did not think that my life could be as full and beautiful and confident and radiant. I didn't think life could be this good and it is."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
