Cancer Patient Who Lost Her Hair and ‘Identity’ Is Able to Wear a Ponytail Again (Exclusive)

Alayna Riozzi-Bodine is celebrating a major milestone as she recovers from her second cancer diagnosis — the ability to put her hair in a ponytail again.

Now 21, the nursing student at Monmouth University tells PEOPLE that she was only 17 and starting her senior year of high school when she was first diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma in September 2021.

“No 17-year-old ever expects to hear the words ‘you have cancer.’ Two thoughts ran through my mind: ‘Am I going to survive?’ and ‘Am I going to lose my hair?'” the Monmouth County, N.J., resident recalls thinking.

Riozzi-Bodine kept her hair while undergoing eight rounds of standard chemotherapy before being declared cancer-free in February 2022. She says that she was the first pediatric patient who was able to use a cold cap at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

According to the American Cancer Society, a cold cap is a form of scalp cooling treatment. The organization explained that scalp cooling entails “lowering the temperature of the scalp with a scalp cooling device,” noting that “for some people, scalp cooling might reduce hair loss caused by chemotherapy.”

Cold caps “work by connecting a special cap to an automated device that circulates a liquid or gel cooled to a specific temperature.”

The therapy can only be used for specific types of cancer and is not formally approved for use by pediatric patients, according to the ACS.

A competitive triathlete, Riozzi-Bodine says that being able to keep her hair provided a “small piece of normalcy” in her life.

Unfortunately, she relapsed and was diagnosed with cancer a second time during her sophomore year of college in 2023. This time, the cancer wasn’t responding to the chemotherapy, and doctors said that she’d need to undergo a bone marrow transplant.

“I went through immunotherapy along with two rounds of a different chemotherapy to get my body ready,” she recalls, adding that she was unable to use the cold cap and lost her hair.

“During my first diagnosis, using the cold cap allowed me to look in the mirror and still see me. It gave me a sense of normalcy and control when everything else in my life felt so out of control,” she shares.

Continuing, she says, “The second time, when I relapsed and couldn’t use the cold cap, it was a completely different experience. The night before Christmas Eve, I shaved my head, and I remember feeling like cancer was consuming me and winning.”

“I lost all sense of my identity. When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t recognize myself anymore. It was heartbreaking, and it really showed me just how much preserving your hair can mean to a patient — not out of vanity, but as a way of holding on to a piece of yourself through something so devastating,” Riozzi-Bodine admits.

After undergoing the transplant in April 2024, she was finally declared “cancer-free for the first time in four years” in July 2025.

After losing her hair, Riozzi-Bodine began documenting the process of regrowing it alongside other moments from her recovery on social media. She went viral, amassing nearly 275,000 views in one video where she celebrated being able to wear her hair in a ponytail again for the first time since losing it.

“This is not a drill,” she told her viewers in the clip before turning around to show them her baby ponytail, which she described as being “so tiny and so cute.”

Gushing, she said, “It looks like a little freaking pompom or, I don’t even know, like a little bunny’s tail.”

“I don’t think you understand how happy it makes me,” she admitted of her chic look.

Reflecting on the experience, she tells PEOPLE that pulling her curls back into the slicked-back style made her feel like a child again in a euphoria-inducing way.

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“I was ecstatic — I called my mom right away, and my dad came upstairs to take pictures. My long hair had always been such a big part of my life, so being able to gather these little ringlet curls into a tiny ponytail meant the world to me,” she says, adding, “It wasn’t just about the hair — it was about what it symbolized. That ponytail showed me that time is passing, healing is happening, and I’m growing — not just in the hair on my head, but as a person, as a two-time cancer survivor.”

Riozzi-Bodine says that she grew up with long hair, which became a part of her identity. However, she is getting even more compliments now with her adorable, short style.

Does she plan to return to her old look?

“For now, I’m just letting it keep growing and enjoying each stage it goes through. I think my hair tells a story of resilience, and I’m excited to see where it goes — whether it stays short and curly or eventually grows long again,” she answers PEOPLE.

The college student explains that her experience opened her eyes to the realities of losing your hair and sense of identity to cancer. While undergoing chemotherapy the first time, others reached out to ask how she was keeping her hair.

She tells PEOPLE that the questions and her opportunity to use the cold cap led to her and her mom founding the Alayna Jayne Foundation.

At first, the goal was “to provide financial support for cold caps.” The organization has evolved over the years and is “now to support adolescent and young adult cancer patients in many ways.”

She says that the foundation helps with “wig funding, scholarships, retreats and hospital room makeovers for bone marrow transplant patients who often spend 6–8 weeks in isolation.”

“Cancer has changed my life, but it has also given me purpose,” she says. “I’ve been surrounded by support from my hometown, from the cancer community, and even from people all around the world. Because of them, I’ve been able to turn something so painful into something positive. I always say everything happens for a reason — and I believe my reason is to advocate, to make change in the medical world, and to use both my nursing career and my perspective as a two-time cancer survivor to help others.”

While Riozzi-Bodine was declared cancer-free again in July, she knows that this doesn’t mean she’s through with the experience.

“Many people think that once you hear the words ‘cancer-free,’ everything goes back to normal — but that’s actually the opposite,” she explains. “I will be dealing with side effects from my treatments for the rest of my life, which constantly reminds me how every day is a true blessing.”

For now, she says, “I’m focusing on healing, finishing nursing school, and continuing the work of my foundation, taking each day as it comes and appreciating every moment I have.”

Regrowing her hair has been a part of her recovery that she’s been able to document. Another that she would like to take on personally is a return to competitive athletics.

“I’m also ready to return to the sport I love. Before my diagnosis, I trained as a triathlete and had set the ambitious goal of completing an Ironman. Treatment and recovery over the past four years put that on hold, but now I’m eager to get back to triathlon training and take on that challenge — both as a personal goal and as a symbol of reclaiming my life after cancer,” she says.

Throughout it all, the young advocate has developed a theme that she repeats in her videos to remind others of their own resilience as much as her own: “We’re thriving and surviving.”