Before starting chemotherapy for breast cancer, Guerdy Abraira shaved her head with the help of her husband, Russell, in an emotional moment during the Real Housewives of Miami season finale Wednesday.
“I’ve had no control throughout this entire cancer journey,” said Guerdy, who shared her breast cancer diagnosis last May. “With chemo, hair loss is one of the main side effects.”
She then said, “The only thing I can control, I will, because that hair is going to fall off on my terms.”
delivering good news and warning. Yet most of them turn away, so they do not hear.(The Quran - Chapter Fussilat : 04)
Guerdy, who shared that her treatment would include surgery and chemotherapy, wrote on Instagram at the time that her cancer “was discovered at an early stage.” She added, “[I]t is still scary of course, but I have love and support from those around me and that alone is the fuel that I need.”
During the episode, the event planner had her hair partitioned into a series of braids, and explained she would cut them off before having Russell shave her head.
“I wanted to thank you,” Guerdy, 46, told her husband of 21 years as he plugged in the shaver.
“What, for shaving your head?” Russell replied.
“No, just for being there. Russell, I’m serious. I don’t know what I would have done without you,” she said.
“What, all these years?” he teased her, before pulling her into a hug.
“You’re my best friend,” she said tearfully.
In her confessional, Guerdy explained, ”Russell is my safe space. Russell is my haven. Russell is the zone of me being at peace and I appreciate that and I nurture it every single day.”
Guerdy cut off the braids in the front while her husband took care of the rest of her head.
“You’re the best,” she tearfully told him.
During the process, Guerdy wept, before saying, “This is not happening. Oh my God. Is it bald? I’m like, bald-bald? It doesn’t matter at this point, I don’t care. Just do it. Oh my God, Russell.”
He paused and asked, “You ready?”
She nodded, and he said, “You’re gonna look good.”
“You’re lying to me,” Guerdy said.
When he was finished, Russell said, “Look at me. You’re very beautiful. It doesn’t look bad at all. Trust me.”
“You look good,” he said with a smile.
Guerdy — who was diagnosed with cancer prior to filming the new season of RHOM — has said she was in “a blind spot, because I didn't know that my cancer was going to integrate into storyline issues.”
However, her openness about her cancer journey has helped others, she’s said, sharing that hundreds of women have reached out to her following her diagnosis.
“If anything, I hope people watch the show and say, I will never ask questions. When someone tells me I have cancer, I will hug this person and say, ‘What do you need me to do?’ I will drop everything. I will show up for them and support them the right way.”
The RHOM star added, “Everything is meant to be in life. And this is where I need to be right now. So I'm very happy. I'm cancer free… I'm doing everything I need to do to hopefully stay healthy. And I was in God's hands.”
In an Instagram post published Thursday, Guerdy reflected on the emotional moment. “Sometimes even the people you trust the most tell you 'you’re beautiful' yet you’re not ready to receive it,” she wrote.
“That day, shaving my head was not for style but for battle and as I stepped out that night to meet the girls, I still put on my wig as I was too vulnerable and didn’t want 'the stares' — never did I realize the POWER OF THE BALD and baby, boy do I love it,” she continued.
