"Hard enough for a man to lose their hair; It speaks volumes": When Andre Agassi praised his sister for 'fun head-shaving ceremony' amid cancer battle
Andre Agassi once lavished high praise on his sister Tami's courage in the face of losing her hair amid her battle with breast cancer. To demonstrate their support, the American and his brother Philip shaved their heads in solidarity with their sister.
The tennis star and his family were rocked by his mother Elizabeth and sister Tami's twin breast cancer diagnoses in 2000. As Tami underwent chemotherapy treatments, she was forced to shave her head at just 30 years of age.
Andre Agassi, who became popular for his distinctive mullet hairstyle when he initially broke out on the scene, experienced his own struggle with hair loss at the age of 19 in 1990. Instead of embracing his thinning hair, he chose to don a hairpiece for five years to mask the reality.
As such, the American could empathize deeply with his sister Tami's challenging situation, acknowledging that hair loss was even tougher for women. In an appearance on Good Morning America a month after his triumph at the 2001 Australian Open, Andre Agassi commended his sister on her strength in allowing him and Philip to shave her hair without any qualms.
"It’s quite symbolic of how she’s treated the whole fight. You know whatever stage it’s been, it’s been 'I’m gonna hit this head on,'" Andre Agassi said.
"And it’s hard enough for a man to lose their hair you know. I can assure you that. But for a woman and they’re 30 years old to go through it, for her to deal with it that way I think just is a testament. And it speaks volumes for who she is as a person," he added.
Despite the difficult circumstances, Tami kept a positive outlook, taking satisfaction in losing her hair in a "fun head-shaving ceremony." She also expressed her gratitude for her brothers' "sweet gesture" of going bald in solidarity.
"We had a fun little head-shaving ceremony in Las Vegas. It was a good way to lose it. They went into the bathroom, and they came out and surprised me with bald heads, but they didn’t have much to lose. I definitely had a lot to lose in that ordeal. But it was a sweet gesture," Tami said.
Andre Agassi: "I watched my brother lose his hair; it was very emotional for him"
Andre Agassi once attributed his loss in the 1990 French Open final to the ordeal of losing "80%" of his hair the night before the all-important title clash, disclosing that he was distracted by the fear of his hairpiece falling off during the match.
On the Today Show in 2009, the American also admitted that his brother Philip's emotional struggle with hair loss had a profound impact on him, admitting that he "struggled" to deal with losing his own hair.
"I watched my brother lose his hair. It was very emotional for him and that left an impression on me, plus it was so connected to my image. It was so connected to what people said about me and you know," he said.
"I didn't know myself and when you don't know yourself, you're not comfortable in your own skin and losing my hair was something I struggled with," he added.
Andre Agassi ultimately shaved his head and embraced the bald look on the advice of his then-girlfriend Brooke Shields, acknowledging his desire to shed the "inconvenience of the hairpieces, the hypocrisy and the pretending and the lying."