When Alayna Riozzi-Bodine was 17 and newly diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma, two questions consumed her: Would she survive? And would she lose her hair? The New Jersey nursing student became the first pediatric patient at Memorial Sloan Kettering to use a cold cap, preserving her hair through eight rounds of chemotherapy and a brief remission.
Then, in 2023, the cancer returned. This time, treatment required a bone marrow transplant. The cold cap was no longer an option. On Christmas Eve, she shaved her head. “I felt like cancer was consuming me and winning,” she recalls.
Declared cancer-free in July 2025, Riozzi-Bodine documented her slow, patient recovery on TikTok. The breakthrough came unexpectedly: a few inches of growth, enough to twist into something small. Her first ponytail—barely the size of “a little bunny’s tail”—became a viral celebration of survival.
The 21-year-old now describes her hair as more than regrowth. It is evidence. Proof that her body, once ravaged by chemo and transplant, is capable of ordinary, beautiful things. Her video, showing her gathering her short strands into a tiny pompom, has resonated with thousands navigating the quiet indignities of cancer recovery.
“Looking in the mirror, I see me again,” she says. Not the patient. Not the survivor. Just Alayna—with a ponytail that took four years and two diagnoses to earn.
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