Feel confident, beautiful and empowered in your new wig, the instructions read. In the mirror a stranger stares back—weak, powerless. I see her ghostly image. She looks raw, bound, and scared. I sit in the pretend “barbershop” in our kitchen. My mom and two young daughters gather around me, while my husband shaves the last patchy clumps of hair from my scalp. Tears overflow in my mother’s eyes—she wipes them quickly. I remove the towel from my shoulders and hold the mirror up close. “There,” I say. “Not so bad, is it? Mommy’s a fierce woman warrior now.” I bend my elbow and make a muscle. The girls giggle. I have to laugh for them. I have to be strong for them. “Just give me a few minutes, okay?” I walk into my bathroom, close the door, sit on …
