No Hair, Don’t Care is the story of how a mother, Shaquita, and her daughter, Lexie, learned to cope with the side effects of chemotherapy and hair loss in particular. During their journey, they relied on prayer, love, determination, and a positive attitude to help them overcome their fears. Lexie and her mom realized that love was all they needed to keep their family together during such a critical time.
On September 12, 2018, the Estes family received devastating news—Shaquita was diagnosed with Triple Negative Stage 2, Infiltrating Ductile Carcinoma breast cancer. Her life was turned upside down and would never be the same.
As Shaquita and her husband prepared to share her diagnosis with their children, a lot of things ran through their minds: Would the children understand? How would they internalize this news? Would they wonder if their mother was dying, or would they unite as one and tackle it together? After pondering for a month, they were led to have an open and honest conversation with their children because they knew Shaquita would begin to show outward changes—mainly hair loss—due to chemotherapy. As the changes began to occur, Shaquita realized that her daughter was experiencing various emotions.
One day after school, Lexie and her mom had a conversation about their quest and that’s when Shaquita realized that as she was remembering critical parts of the journey, so was Lexie. In that moment, they decided to write a children’s book to share their story with other families like theirs. So instead of looking at this quest as a traumatic event, they decided to turn it into a triumphant one.
Shaquita and Lexie hope to inspire other families to stay steadfast on their journey through breast cancer.