‘Feels Good to Have a Healthy Cut’
Teddi Mellencamp/ instagram (2)
Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave is celebrating her recent health news in a big way.
Days after the Two Ts in a Pod host received results of a skin cancer biopsy, learning that her melanoma had not spread beyond the removed area, Mellencamp Arroyave decided to make a major hair change — trading out her long blonde locks for a short bob.
“I tend to change things up whenever something major happens in my life,” Mellencamp Arroyave, 40, tells PEOPLE, noting how she went pink after having her 2-year-old daughter, Dove.
The new bob came courtesy of L.A.-based hairstylist to the stars Kim Dow, who cut and colored Mellencamp Arroyave’s hair on Sunday after removing her extensions.
“This time I chopped my hair after finding out that my melanoma was stage 0 and contained in the area that was removed,” Mellencamp Arroyave adds. “I can say that in this moment, it feels good to have a fresh healthy cut.”
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She wasn’t the only one who changed things up. Her daughter Slate, 9, and son Cruz, 7, also switched up their hair, Dow giving them both blonde highlights.
Mellencamp Arroyave revealed all of their transformations in a before and after Reel on Instagram, Monday. “No, the magic trick wasn’t making Dove disappear,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum wrote, noting how Dove didn’t participate in the second part of the video. “She just wasn’t ready to enter her blonde era with the rest of us.”
“PS. How many days until I regret the bob?” she asked.
RELATED: Teddi Mellencamp ‘Blessed’ and ‘Relieved’ After Receiving Melanoma Test Results
Earlier this month, Mellencamp Arroyave revealed on Instagram that she removed a mole from her back after friend and former RHOBH costar Kyle Richards encouraged her to get it checked out.
“This is a reminder to please go get your yearly skin checks,” she wrote on Instagram on March 17. “I had been avoiding mine bc of my own anxiety for a very long time but when @kylerichards18 saw my back and it had changed colors again, she immediately took me to the doc who within minutes said it looks like melanoma and did a big removal.”
Test results came back less than a week later, Mellencamp Arroyave explaining in a follow-up post that it was melanoma in situ, “which means the cancer cells were contained in that area of my skin and have not spread any deeper!”
“Got my results back and it’s good news,” she said. adding that she was feeling “blessed and relieved.”
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According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, Melanoma in situ means that a tumor has not invaded beyond the outer layer of the skin. It is the earliest form of melanoma, and is “the easiest to treat and almost always curable,” they said.
Mellencamp Arroyave — who also shares 13-year-old step-daughter Isabella with husband Edwin Arroyave — added that she also felt “grateful to have diligent friends and doctors to watch out for me,.
“I’ll now need to have 3-month checkups, while always making sure to wear sunscreen (a given, I know!) and protective clothing,” she continued. “I really hope that in sharing all of this, I can encourage all of you to get your skin checked annually. If I hadn’t gone in, I don’t want to think about how it could have gone differently.”
“Our skin is something a lot of us take for granted but not me anymore — and I hope not you either 💕 #melanomaawareness,” she said.