And Then There Was Hair…

Hair. It’s a peculiar thing. It is super important to some and not so much to others. Some people look great without it and others, well, not so much. Most people  have a choice as to how they want their hair to look and the options are as endless as the grains of sand on a beach. But then there are those of us who don’t have a lot of options and we just have to deal with the hand we are dealt and make the best of it.

I am just going to go ahead and make the assumption that men deal with hair loss way better than women. I can think of a lot of handsome bald men roaming around our little planet but I have a much harder time even thinking of one woman who proudly displays her baldness. Not that they don’t exist but I can’t think of one.

So all of this brings me to the fact that I have started to regrow some hair. The oddest thing is that I have begun to note peach fuzz on my face which I never had before and for the record, it’s not super cute. But the hair on my head is also growing and it’s so far coming in a nice shade of white.

I’m 45 and not so sure I was ready for such a phenomenon. I have no idea what the end result will be like but as with the rest of life, it’s an adventure. My hair is long enough now that I am beginning to wake up in the mornings with a bit of bed head, but it is not long enough for me to feel comfortable walking around in public without my wig. Ok, well that’s not entirely true either because some days I just don’t care and throw a baseball hat on and call it good.

 

About the wig… my mom has spent a lot of time over the years researching wigs because the women in my family have a tendency towards extreme thinning of hair during times of stress or just as they get older. The women in my family also have a penchant for wanting to look as cute as possible, hence the desire to find hair that makes them feel, well, not bald. So fortunately for me my mom had a plethora of wigs at her disposal and boxed up a few and sent them to me when it became abundantly clear that I was going to lose my hair. So naturally I picked out the one that made me feel the most comfortable and have worn it so that I will blend in with the rest of society and not have my bald head create unwanted attention.

The funny thing is that this wig has created more attention than anything else ever in my life. There are very few days in the last 6 months that someone hasn’t stopped me and told me how much they like my hair to which I smile and say thank you.  Where it gets awkward is when they don’t just leave it there. “No really! Your hair is soo great! It’s the perfect color! The style is so cute! Seriously where did you get it done? How do you straighten it like that? I am a hairdresser and I have to know who does your hair!” It’s at this point that things become very awkward. I really suck at being evasive and so I quietly say, “It’s a wig.” What!? No way! It looks so real! I would never have known that wasn’t  your real hair!” Everyone is always gracious and kind but it just feels weird. The good thing is that after all of these years of desiring to have long  hair and ignoring the fact my hair is just to thin to be long, that I have finally found the perfect haircut for me. The only problem is that it’s not my hair. My girlfriends have told me that when my hair gets longer I need to go to my hairdresser, plop my wig on and tell her to cut it the exact same way. Time will tell if my hair will actually perform as well as the wig has and who knows, maybe I will just keep it around and use it on my bad hair days and call it good.

I am a week and a half from being done with radiation and the burns are beginning to hurt and to peel a bit. The weekends at home are both good and hard. Good because we have had some fun family time, hard because they have a routine and a way of getting stuff done without me being home. There have been some hard “discussions” and a few tears as I try and find my place in their world without disrupting what they already have going. I wish I could say that I am making it easy for everyone and that everyone is super sad to have me leave town on Monday’s. Not that they don’t miss me or that they want me to be gone but I have an ability to create an emotional disruption in the home that goes away when I am not there. One would think that since I know this about myself that I would stop doing it. All I can say is that today is a new day and I have several days to review how I handled each situation last weekend and to pray and ask God to help me to do better when I reenter the home next weekend.

I am sitting at a cafe as I write this and a really sweet lady just came up to me and asked me where I got my hair done. She is wanting to cut hers just like mine. She was so nice and I felt really bad when the awkward silence ensued after I told her it was a wig. She then asked me why I was wearing a wig and I told her I was just finishing up breast cancer treatment. If that is not a conversation destroyer than I don’t know what is! She told me, “good job,” and then slinked away probably vowing to herself to never compliment someone on their hair ever again. It truly is a great wig and it makes me feel cute, and as we all know, cute is the point. Right?

By the way just in case you want to be as cute as me, here is the link to a few websites that sell the wig that I wear. They don’t know me and I do not benefit from providing you this information other than the fact that I am spreading the cuteness around. Natalie is the name of the Wig and Jon Renau is the designer.

Have a great day, All!

Let's Hang Out! Sign up here to get all updates sent directly to your inbox.