Have you always had that mole?

I've heard myself say that very phrase, "have you always had that mole?" to my clients many times. My clients can't see their scalp the way that I can and I always investigate. Many years ago I was doing my grandmothers hair when I noticed a spot on her scalp that I did not remember was their prior. It looked suspicious. My grandmother is fair skin, a natural blonde with blue eyes. The sun was never her friend, a lesson learned later in life.

My grandmother had an appointment with her Dermatologist not long after I mentioned the suspicious spot. The Dermatologist did his normal scan of her body checking for any of the scaly or red areas she would get burned off regularly (remember the sun was not her friend). She requested he take a look at her scalp because her granddaughter (me) saw something out of the norm. He obliged and took a sampling of it. This spot was skin cancer and my grandmother thankfully was able to have it removed.

We know now what the sun can potentially do to our skin. Do you ever think about your scalp and how it also needs protection? Yes our hair will protect it to an extent, but we need to do more. You can wear a UV protection hat, use hair products with added UVA & UVB protection, or you can put sunscreen directly on your scalp.

If you feel or sense something on your scalp, ears or neck, go see your Dermatologist. I've linked a website that has a great chart of "How to Spot Cancer". https://www.aad.org/public/spot-skin-cancer/learn-about-skin-cancer/detect/how-to-spot-skin-cancer