At the end of 2013, I'd been trying to come up with a high-impact, engaging campaign to fundraise and raise awareness! I hadn't been able to come up with anything good, but then in January 2014 it hit me - let's try to recreate calendar girls, with a difference...
It was a feat to organise, but a lot of fun too! There was the venue to arrange, a photographer to convince, a sponsor to gain, accommodation, food (thanks mum for cooking for 20), props, helpers and a million things beside. After almost four months of planning, it came to fruition, culminating in possibly the most bizarre, strange and liberating experience of my life so far!
At 7.30am, four of us grabbed our first glass of champagne and got into a hot tub of all places, trying to look casual and relaxed as though this is what we do every weekend! It was AWKWARD, there is no other word for it, and I began to dread what I had done, convinced it would flop and I'd be hated by a group of equally awkward, probably also angry women who felt somehow like I had let them down! There was only one solution - alcohol at 9am (ouch), with Pimms, Champagne and G&Ts. Alcohol is something we were not short of that weekend and in fact because everyone had bought enough for an army, there was plenty to go home with us too!
The photographs themselves needed some serious tweaking before they could be printed! It's harder than you think ensuring no nipples or other bits are on show and I have to thank my designer Debi McCormack for her her skillful editing and tweaking.
From there, it was a whirlwind - checking and re-checking all the dates. sending it to print, gulping as I saw the size of the delivery pallet turning up, launching a website, sending out a couple of speculative press releases hoping it would get at least a little coverage to help with sales, then BOOM, off it took. Suddenly, our little calendar produced in Gloucestershire was winging it's way across Magazines, Radio, Newspapers and TV all around the World. We had the most glorious trip to appear on Good Morning Britain (which was ace by the way) and more importantly than all that, it started to sell; people all around the world were ordering via the website and I was making daily trips to the Post Office to drop off the latest batch.
In the meantime, all the other gorgeous ladies involved were also working to convince their friends and family that YES, a calendar of naked AND bald women was the best thing they were going to buy all year, and they did me proud. We're now hung on the walls of around 500 different people, which I appreciate isn't that many, but which is big for us!
This reflection started because I simply could not believe that it has been over a year since those photographs were taken. It's continued though and I've reflected on all sorts of things, like just how far I have come, how comfy I am without hair and quite frankly how I am not too bothered if it returns, how many fabulous people have come forward and shared their own story with me - a brave and humbling thing - and even how obscure some of my experiences have been along the way.
I guess what I can honestly say, and what I hope many of you my lovely readers are experiencing or wil experience, is the fact that yes, Alopecia and hairloss in general can be goddamn awful, but it can be a blessing too, and one that creates many memories of which I am particularly fond, and which I never would have had without it!
Victoria x
At 7.30am, four of us grabbed our first glass of champagne and got into a hot tub of all places, trying to look casual and relaxed as though this is what we do every weekend! It was AWKWARD, there is no other word for it, and I began to dread what I had done, convinced it would flop and I'd be hated by a group of equally awkward, probably also angry women who felt somehow like I had let them down! There was only one solution - alcohol at 9am (ouch), with Pimms, Champagne and G&Ts. Alcohol is something we were not short of that weekend and in fact because everyone had bought enough for an army, there was plenty to go home with us too!
The photographs themselves needed some serious tweaking before they could be printed! It's harder than you think ensuring no nipples or other bits are on show and I have to thank my designer Debi McCormack for her her skillful editing and tweaking.
From there, it was a whirlwind - checking and re-checking all the dates. sending it to print, gulping as I saw the size of the delivery pallet turning up, launching a website, sending out a couple of speculative press releases hoping it would get at least a little coverage to help with sales, then BOOM, off it took. Suddenly, our little calendar produced in Gloucestershire was winging it's way across Magazines, Radio, Newspapers and TV all around the World. We had the most glorious trip to appear on Good Morning Britain (which was ace by the way) and more importantly than all that, it started to sell; people all around the world were ordering via the website and I was making daily trips to the Post Office to drop off the latest batch.
In the meantime, all the other gorgeous ladies involved were also working to convince their friends and family that YES, a calendar of naked AND bald women was the best thing they were going to buy all year, and they did me proud. We're now hung on the walls of around 500 different people, which I appreciate isn't that many, but which is big for us!
This reflection started because I simply could not believe that it has been over a year since those photographs were taken. It's continued though and I've reflected on all sorts of things, like just how far I have come, how comfy I am without hair and quite frankly how I am not too bothered if it returns, how many fabulous people have come forward and shared their own story with me - a brave and humbling thing - and even how obscure some of my experiences have been along the way.
I guess what I can honestly say, and what I hope many of you my lovely readers are experiencing or wil experience, is the fact that yes, Alopecia and hairloss in general can be goddamn awful, but it can be a blessing too, and one that creates many memories of which I am particularly fond, and which I never would have had without it!
Victoria x
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