Sarah Beeny reveals she used dog clippers to shave her head after cancer diagnosis Us News Press

Presenter Sarah Beeny has revealed how she used dog clippers to shave her head as she sought to challenge stereotypes associated with baldness.

The 50-year-old, who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, said people with no hair are often seen as ‘victims,’ ‘angry’ or suffering some form of ‘punishment’.

And, revealing her head for the first time without a wig, she said cancer patients are often ‘ashamed’ to go bald.

‘Having no hair often seems to be associated with anger,’ she told Weekend magazine.

‘You’re a victim or it’s a punishment, like Fantine in Les Misérables, or Cersei Lannister in Game Of Thrones. People are ashamed of their bald heads.’

The 50-year-old, who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, said people with no hair are often seen as ‘victims,’ ‘angry’ or suffering some form of ‘punishment’

The mother of four admitted that she ended up shaving her head with clippers usually reserved for trimming her cockapoo Maple and has now tattooed her eyebrows in case they fall out

The Property Ladder presenter continued: ‘The more I talk to people in this boat, the word I keep hearing is “shame”.

‘And I thought: Why? If you’ve got breast cancer and you’re having treatment, the fact you have no hair is not a reason to be ashamed.

‘I don’t want to be ashamed. I don’t want other people to feel ashamed. I want to change that stereotype.’

In August she shared a picture to Instagram showing her sons, Billy, 18, Charlie, 16, Raffey 14, and Laurie, 13, cutting her ‘blonde chaos’.

She donated her locks to The Little Princess Trust, a charity which makes wigs for sick children and young people.

She said that after her kitchen haircut she thought: ‘There, I’ve done it. I’m over the hair thing.’

But she revealed that two weeks later, after starting chemotherapy treatment, it was ‘really traumatic’ when ‘handfuls’ of hair began to fall out.

‘That’s when I cried. I thought, “Oh God, this is it. It’s happening,”’ she said.

In August she shared a picture to Instagram showing her sons, Billy, 18, Charlie, 16, Raffey 14, and Laurie, 13, cutting her ‘blonde chaos’

Her chemotherapy is set to finish on December 30 when she says she plans to drink a bottle of Champagne to celebrate – having given up alcohol during her treatment

The mother of four admitted that she ended up shaving her head with clippers usually reserved for trimming her cockapoo Maple and has now tattooed her eyebrows in case they fall out.

Sarah Beeny’s rise to fame

Sarah Beeny’s name has become synonymous with property, fronting a number of TV shows, kicking off with the hugely successful home makeover show Property Ladder which ran for seven series from 2001 to 2009.

In 2006, Sarah presented another Channel 4 programme, One Year to Pay Off Your Mortgage. She has written a number of books to accompany the series, as well as a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday.

In 2012, Sarah presented Double your House for Half the Money, a series that showed viewers how they can have the home they’ve always dreamed about, even if you can’t afford it. This series ran for 3 seasons.

How to Live Mortgage Free with Sarah Beeny in 2017 saw Sarah sharing tricks to avoid mortgage payments altogether.

In 2018, Beeny launched her podcast At Home with Sarah Beeny, a series where famous personalities give her access to their homes and lives. The series includes guests Joe Sugg, Julian Clary, Jo Wood, June Sarpong, Tim Lovejoy, Lynn Bowles and Pearl Lowe.

In June 2022, Beeny’s latest television series Sarah Beeny’s Little House Big Plans premiered on Channel 4.

She is also now the proud owner of a collection of wigs, which she says are like her new ‘religion’, including ‘four or five different versions of the blonde chaos’ and a ‘nail polish red’ one.

‘I’ve got a bit carried away. My husband says our bedroom looks like a scene from The Silence Of The Lambs,’ she joked.

‘I have eight of them sitting on heads on the windowsill. He’s like, “Oh my God Sarah, it’s a bit scary.”

‘At the beginning I thought wearing a wig would look like having a dead rat on my head. Remember the old Hamlet cigar advert… But wigs are brilliant, it’s like I’ve found a new religion.

‘Everyone should have one, cancer treatment, alopecia, can’t be bothered to do your hair, there’s a wig for that.’

Miss Beeny, whose mother Ann died of breast cancer aged 39 when she was 10, said her cancer was oestrogen and progesterone positive and fast growing, but that there was no evidence it had spread to her lymph nodes.

She added that her ‘lovely brother’ pointed out that the 20 per cent chance she won’t get the all-clear after treatment ‘isn’t that you’ll definitely die instantly’.

‘It’s a 20 per cent chance of having some cancer which can be treated in an ongoing way,’ she said.

Her chemotherapy is set to finish on December 30 when she says she plans to drink a bottle of Champagne to celebrate – having given up alcohol during her treatment.

A third series of Sarah Beeny’s New Life In The Country, which documents her family’s move from London to a 22-acre former dairy farm in Somerset, is set to air in the New Year.

She is also working on a book about her life and a new documentary about her cancer on Channel 4 in which she wants to ‘sing it from the rooftops that the quicker you get a diagnosis the better the outcome’.