Not Tonight Dear, I Have a Head Shaving

Yeah. I did it. It became completely obvious the hair wanted to go. Thursday night, when I wrote the last posting, things still looked good. But when I woke up Friday morning with a bunch of hair in my face, I moved it out of my way and realized....it was no longer attached to anything. Then I brushed it and oh yeah. Sheets of it were falling out. And it didn't stop. So I did. I wore the cute little Sienna hat for the day at work and just left the 26 or 27 strands of hair I had left to fend for themselves until Kelly, my hair stylist for nearly 20 years now, came over to do the deed. We had margaritas to get ready (it's not like you can screw up this kind of "styling"). Chris did the bartending and photographing.

At Kelly's suggestion, we did not shave it down to nothing. We just buzzed down to little boy or 70s era feminist (you choose). And it turns out...my hair is kinda dark!! Well, darker than I was expecting. I've "highlighted" it blond for years now, but never had to do the "dye the whole thing" kind of coloring. My hair is a dark blond and gets a lot lighter with sun. Clearly what's left hasn't had any time in the sun! And, in the top left picture, I happen to think I look like my brother Jay. Wearing hoop earrings. And eyeliner. (He doesn't read the blog, so we'll never know if he agrees. Or is insulted.)

So on to the more fun portion of the evening (although, I have to tell you, it wasn't that bad. Now, maybe tomorrow I'll feel differently, or Monday, or a week or a month from now, but right now, I'm good. My morning routine just got cut in half, easily). First up, the winning wig:Yeah, I went with the red. In person, I liked it best (that's me with the "winner" on the day I bought it...which was actually even before the poll went up; but hey, thanks for playing!). The winner of the poll was the Ash Blond, but it was also the human hair wig and kinda grey in person. Plus, I know that hair falling in my face like that would make me crazy. I'm even worried about this one. But I like it. I just now have to reconsider all my clothing and make-up color choices. I hadn't thought that one through.

Second place in the polls was dark and mysterious--and that surprised me. But, since it got second place there's a dark and mysterious option for me too:

I did also get a blond wig, and another strawberry blond one that we sort of cut to look like the ash blond one, but I can't ruin all the fun in one blog. Those wigs will wait.

The last option, and likely one I will be exercising a lot, is of course the scarf/bandana/ do-rag look. (Don't I just sort of look like a surgeon? Okay, one in a women's center where everything is pink, but still.) Coach scarf on the left was a Christmas gift from Trudi (Chris's mom), even though at the time she didn't know I'd need it for my head.

I feel like I've cleared another major hurdle. Phew. Thanks for clearing it with me. It's now been nearly three months since I first walked into a doctor's office with the "I think I feel a lump." I'm not quite halfway through this "journey." I calculate the halfway point as just about the first week of April. Even so, I've "journeyed" through a lot and this was one of the big "moments." And, eh, not so bad. I'll take this over the white blood cell count crash any day.

Now I get a nice weekend at home (yeah, with a little work thrown in) and then next week--chemo round two. Thursday. Think the beanie babies are still hanging out?

P.S. (can you do a P.S. on a blog?) Remember to vote on the "Break-out Blog Star" poll over to the right; and to have your friends in Wisconsin and North Dakota log on to the blog. Ireland showed up today!