𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗨𝗽 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯, Gouda (2026)

26/01/2024

Hi everyone🥰
My plan to take a break for a few weeks slowly turned into a few months. First of all, thank you to so many of you who have reached out to ask how I am doing, I appreciate you more than I can put into words. Without turning this into a long essay, these last few months brought some extra struggles to an already extremely challenging year and I really needed some time off to focus completely on myself. I’m happy to say my stomach wound has closed up completely. I’m left with some gnarly scars, but they don’t bother me that much. A fracture in my pelvic bone was recently discovered which explains why I’ve had difficulty walking. On top of that my emotional support cat and big love Rocco passed away at 17, a more than respectable age, but it left me totally heartbroken. And to end 2023 with a bang my twin .needles was diagnosed with breast cancer again, like wtf!?! We are doing almost daily hospital visits for tests, because it seems like nothing is ever regular with us, and that’s it in a nutshell.
I do want to end this post on a VERY positive note; my last pet scan showed a significant decrease in cancer cell activity in all the metastasis!! *happy dance* 💃🏻🕺
I will start posting regularly again soon, and a big thank you to those who have continued to order from me, as my shop is still open. You rock!

07/07/2023

Hi friends, it’s me with another update to share.
Oh how I wish it was a positive one, but the skin transplant was unsuccessful yet again. For f*cks sake!!
I spent 5 days in the hospital with a vacuumpump attached to my stomach, the only walking I did was to and from the toilet, but to no avail. Three members of my plastic surgeons team were there to remove the pump and bandages and all were flabbergasted when the entire piece of transplanted skin came off completely AGAIN.
There is no explanation for why this keeps happening, just bad luck (heard that one before🙄). They immediately contacted my oncologist and together decided that the only thing left to do now is to let the wound close organically. My next PET scan is scheduled for September and I will start the protein inhibitors depending those results. The huge abrasions on both my legs are so very painful, I can’t walk or stand up for too long and have to rest. These past 10 weeks have been very hard and that’s an understatement!
This is why I’ve decided to take a break from social media for a few weeks. I find myself worrying about posting and engaging, feeling bad about not creating content, responding to messages and about my business all together and this is just not good for my mindset. I worked so hard these past two years to get The Head Up Club to where it is, and not being able to sew, design and create is weighing heavy on my heart.
So I’m going to use these weeks to rest my mind, allow my body to heal and snuggle extra hard with my ginger side kick Rocco😻.
There are still a few ready to ship items available on the site and orders are being taken care of by my mother and sister. Thank you all so much for your sweet comments and messages, I appreciate you more than I can put into words and can’t wait to come back with a bang. Talk to you soon!

Big BIG love,
Renate💕

25/06/2023

I feel like all I’m doing these days is giving health updates, and I so wish I had something positive to tell you, but unfortunately, yet another surgery proved unsuccessful…
Last Monday I received skin transplant surgery, a piece of my left inner thigh was transplanted to the large open wound on my stomach. A fairly easy procedure, took a little over an hour and I was allowed to go home the same day. I went in and came out of it feeling peachy keen (see photos 2&3). They told me not to touch any of the bandages until Friday when I had to come in for a wound check and new bandages, just add some gauze if anything leaks they said. By Thursday it started to smell awful and Friday the doctor removed the sponge that was stapled to my stomach and the entire piece of donor skin came off. I screamed my lungs out! On top of that the nurse thought it was a good idea to spray alcohol on the abrasions on my leg and rub them clean without warning!!! I’m a human being for f*ck sake!! I was beyond upset!
They think I contracted a streptococci and decreased some wound culture, I’ll receive the results of that this coming Tuesday. They also want to attempt another skin transplant from my other thigh next Friday and keep me in the hospital for 5 days with a pump attached to my stomach to drain fluid. But I can’t do it anymore, this will be surgery nr.5 in 6 weeks time, my cup is overflowing big time.
I have a call scheduled with my oncologist to discuss my medication and see if it’s possible to allow the wound on my stomach to close up by itself. I don’t trust surgeons anymore, I’m done.
So now you know why I’ve been MIA on IG, I spent most of the week crying , but I’ve picked myself up and feel more positive now. I even put on a pretty dress and had lunch with my guy today, this always brightens my mood (photo nr.4). As always, thank you for reading and for all the sweet messages and DM’s, I’ll try and answer them in the upcoming days and will keep you posted on what’s going to happen next (also conceirning The Head Up Club, I miss creating headwear so very deeply).
Know that I appreciate you all very much💕💕💕.

17/06/2023

I sure do love myself a great big bow🎀!! Debbie looks SO GOOD in her dusky pink velvet Bowie Turban, just WOW!

13/06/2023

I’ve added something new and exciting to the website; a large selection of ready to ship wired turbans in the Medium and XL versions and regular turbans in different styles, sizes and prints! All will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering, so if you need an item ASAP, I’ve got you covered😊.
Swipe to see which prints are available for the wired turbans, there’s a lot of funky ones and most are one or two of a kind, so they are extra special😉.

07/06/2023

I’ve received so many messages asking about the results of my PET scan and how I’m doing, I want to sincerely say; thank you so, so much. Unfortunately we did not receive the news we were hoping for. The scan showed three metastases, in my sacrum, left thighbone and spine. The spots are small, and thankfully not in any of my vital organs, but this does give me the diagnosis Stage 4 cancer.
I was in complete shock and it took me a while to regain my composure, like how?!?! Wtf!! Are you f-ing kidding me!!
I am very grateful they discovered it by chance though, don’t even want to think about what would have been my prognosis if they hadn’t . I am ready to start further treatment to make sure the spots stay small and don’t spread. Unfortunately I’m still dealing with the massive open wound on my stomach(the biggest my surgeon has ever seen, I’m so special), which they’ll close by transplanting a piece of skin from my inner thigh to my stomach on Monday 19th, surgery number 4 in 5 weeks time. To cheer me up my guy took me to amusement park the Efteling yesterday, we had so much fun. On our way there I received a call from my oncologist with the results from my bloodtest which was near perfect. No signs of cancer in my blood so that gives me so much hope and positive energy, and overall respect for the strength of this body of mine. It’s been through so much and is still thriving.
I started taking new hormone therapy yesterday and will combine that with a protein inhibitor which I will start taking once my stomach has healed (it attacks your immune system and white bloodcells, that’s why I have to wait) and will also undergo local radiation treatment. I asked my oncologist if she’s ever seen anyone heal from stage 4, she said unfortunately no, so I told her I would be the first🙌🏻. I have a massive fighting spirit and want to stay on this planet for as long as I possibly can! I can’t wait to get back to running this beautiful business of mine full time again, it brings me so much joy and I miss it massively.
So, not the news I want to be sharing with you, but it is what it is. I’m ready to start this next episode.
Thank you so much for reading.✨✨✨

27/05/2023

Where to even start.. I’ve been very absent from social media these past weeks and I’ll give a brief recap of why this is and what has happened. It started with a call from my surgeon after the Diepflap reconstruction, telling me they removed a suspicious looking lymph node, which tested positive for cancer. Wth..
a PET scan was planned for this past Wednesday, where they gave me the wrong contrast fluid, one with estrogen, which makes the PET scan pretty much unusable, because I take hormone therapy daily. They didn’t have my correct medicine list..
On the same day I had a check up of the surgery wound on my stomach which had started to go black, guess what, it was becoming necrotic, for f*ck sake.
Two surgeons were called in and I was told they needed to fix it asap with surgery. Checked in to the hospital early morning the next day and waited until 21:00 with no food until they had time for me. Went into the surgery very nervous and came out of it close to hyperventilating. This feeling stayed the whole night and next day, I seriously wanted to jump out of my skin.
They ended up leaving the wound on my stomach completely open, it has a surface of 20 by 5 cm and is 1,5 cm deep, I can’t even look at it😱.
I’ll receive surgery again in about 6 weeks to close the wound either by stitching it together or by transporting a piece of skin from the back of my thigh.
I came home yesterday and will receive care every morning and afternoon from a nurse to refresh the bandages on my wound.
I’ll receive a new PET scan this coming Wednesday and will get the results on Monday 5th of June. So that’s it in a nutshell. I feel like I’ve landed the starring role in a horror movie.
I’ll keep you posted and would like to ask you to send some positive vibes my way as I really need them atm. Thank you so much💛💛💛.

Open orders will be taken care of by my sister and mother and new orders will have a turnaround time of 8 weeks.

19/05/2023

How adorable is this picture of my Hufflepuff friend Lena and her beautiful little family? She ordered the cherry blossom wired turban and asked me to make matching bow ties for her boyfriend and pup , they look so cool!!
If you are a dog lover, check out Zeli’s profile, he’s such a cutie!
Lena is also very creative, swipe to see the amazing gift she crocheted and send me, Ravenclaw Rocco (my house🐦‍⬛💙)!
As a bonus I added an extra sweet picture of Zeli sleeping in Lena’s velvet Sabina Turban. You’re welcome😁.

15/05/2023

The Knot Turban in this incredible groovy retro print that is coming soon (thank you for your patience!)
Still in full recovery mode atm, so it’ll be a few weeks until I’m able to start sewing and fully doing all the tasks that come with running my business again. I can’t wait, miss it SO much, I am not good at sitting still🙃.

09/05/2023

Where to begin..? I was planning on updating everyone in my stories straight after the diepflap reconstruction, but things didn’t go as planned🙃.
I received the surgery Tuesday the 4th early morning and woke up pretty well. Pain and nausea were manageable, but I was very drowsy for a long time because of the length of the procedure(8 hours). As per protocol the new breast is checked every hour, day and night to make sure the transfered flap from the stomach is getting enough blood. Unfortunately mine wasn’t and I had to go back to the OR and receive surgery again less than 24 hours after the first one. Turned out one of the arteries had snapped which caused problems in the blood circulation and I spent another 4 hours in the operating room. Came out of that pretty well, surprisingly, but I started getting a terrible headache and nausea later that evening and literally had the worst night of my life , I can’t recall ever feeling that bad. So sick, throwing up, I felt my heart pounding out of my ears and no energy to even speak. The night nurse called the surgeon and in the morning the whole team came by. My hb value was extremely low, as was my blood pressure, so I was given a blood transfusion. After two bags I was feeling so much better, thankfully. This has been quite the emotional rollercoaster as you can probably imagine! I’ve had a string of bad luck with reconstruction surgeries, and was feeling very ‘woe is me’ to be honest. So, no complications for the rest of the week, but I was unable to sleep and Sunday I had had enough in that bed, I wanted to go home so bad! My hb and blood pressure were stable so I almost begged the surgeon to discharge me. After a call with the team they gave me the thumbs up! I’m so happy to be in my own space with my loved ones closeby. The aftermath of this surgery is no breeze, it’s painful, uncomfortable, I can walk around the house a bit, but that’s it, and my energy is very low, but so happy to be home! THANK YOU to everyone for the comments and messages, it means the absolute world to me, I just haven’t had the energy to respond yet, but appreciate you so much!
I’ve added a few pictures my family took in the hospital.

01/05/2023

I have some important news to share that affects both my shop and my personal life! For those of you who have been following me for a while, you have most likely read about my cancer journey and failed reconstruction surgeries.
After long consideration I made the decision last year to go for one last surgery as a torn pectoral muscle and excess tissue left me feeling mutilated. I opted to go for a diep flap reconstruction (swipe to see an image and explanation).
The waitinglist was very long and I expected to receive this surgery somewhere around the end of this year. Last Wednesday I received a phone call from the hospital saying they had a cancellation and therefore had a spot open up for me on May 2nd, which is tomorrow!!! After the initial shock I said yes please! I spend the entire Friday morning in hospital for a CT scan, blood tests, appointments with the surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurse and I have been approved! I checked in a few hours ago and actually have my very own room, which is just so wonderful!
Tomorrow morning 7:30 I’ll be heading to the operating room and the surgeon and staff will take a large part of my tummy and turn it into a breast!
This will take 6-8 hours and I am quite nervous for the aftermath😅, hopefully the pain won’t be too bad and I won’t be too nauseous from the anesthesia. The recovery time is 6-8 weeks and I won’t be able to sew for a few of these. This means unfortunately I won’t be able to produce turbans for a little while. The website is currently on maintenance mode, I will put an announcement about the surgery and time off on there tonight.
Thanks so much for reading! I’ll be posting some pre made content here and there and I’ll keep you updated on how I’m doing in my stories guys!! Wish me luck!!
Tomorrow I’ll have two breasts again!
💗💗

26/04/2023

How utterly lovely is this Asian print?! It’s covered in flowers and cranes and the fabric is so soft, breathable and light, absolutely perfect for the warmer weather.
Coming soon!

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗨𝗽 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯

26/01/2024

07/07/2023

25/06/2023

17/06/2023

13/06/2023

07/06/2023

27/05/2023

19/05/2023

15/05/2023

09/05/2023

01/05/2023

26/04/2023

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