![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Hair today - five months out
Here are a couple photos of my hair at the "five months since chemo" stage. I keep thinking it's not growing, but when I compare these photos to 2 months ago, I can see a difference. It seems to me that it is finally getting to the "could be a style choice" stage instead of oddly short.
I am still freaking people out every day if they're seeing me for the first time in awhile... there is what I have come to call "the 10 second lag." People look at me with a complete lack of recognition. Then I speak, or they see N. beside me, and they look again. They screw up their faces, process that it is me, and then go "OH! Beckie!" I forget and wonder why they're staring at me so oddly, and then when they speak I realize they haven't seen me since early August or earlier, and don't know who I am for a few seconds. It's a lesson in how hair factors in to making people recognize you.
Despite the social prohibition, lots of people touch it. They can't resist ruffling the cowlick at the top or playing with the curls in the back. I don't mind.
And then there are the people who are just now figuring out that I've been ill. I find it funny that I'm completely over it and now my hair is giving it away. I thought I was a total wreck in a wig, but apparently I managed to fool a lot of people. I still look in the mirror or feel it, and wonder whose hair I have. "My hair" is long and brown and straight. This "chemo hair" is salt & pepper gray, except that it's black in the back, and wicked curly wurly with cowlicks! Of course, it may change again, as hair grows that has not been bombarded with medicines... something new all the time!
I am still stymied by the people who say "Oh! You cut your hair!" Of course, my immediate reaction is, "No I didn't." But that opens a pandora's box, so I am trying to remember to go in another direction, such as "Do you like it?" People have been universally complimentary, which is reassuring. Though it's hard when this is not something I would ever choose, and I don't like it, but I am getting the idea that others don't find it horrific.
And it is EASY to take care of. And cheap. No shampoo, no conditioner, no brushing, no styling, dries in seconds and no salon - no dying, no cutting! I am oddly cold as I've never been in my life. I've never noticed the cold before until it was below freezing, but this year I started shivering after it got below 60 degrees! I wore the wig or a hat most of last winter, but don't bother now and can definitely tell that hair keeps you warm and I don't have enough!
I don't know what I will do with it long run. My plan is to wait until the new year and see what's going on then.
I am still freaking people out every day if they're seeing me for the first time in awhile... there is what I have come to call "the 10 second lag." People look at me with a complete lack of recognition. Then I speak, or they see N. beside me, and they look again. They screw up their faces, process that it is me, and then go "OH! Beckie!" I forget and wonder why they're staring at me so oddly, and then when they speak I realize they haven't seen me since early August or earlier, and don't know who I am for a few seconds. It's a lesson in how hair factors in to making people recognize you.
Despite the social prohibition, lots of people touch it. They can't resist ruffling the cowlick at the top or playing with the curls in the back. I don't mind.
And then there are the people who are just now figuring out that I've been ill. I find it funny that I'm completely over it and now my hair is giving it away. I thought I was a total wreck in a wig, but apparently I managed to fool a lot of people. I still look in the mirror or feel it, and wonder whose hair I have. "My hair" is long and brown and straight. This "chemo hair" is salt & pepper gray, except that it's black in the back, and wicked curly wurly with cowlicks! Of course, it may change again, as hair grows that has not been bombarded with medicines... something new all the time!
I am still stymied by the people who say "Oh! You cut your hair!" Of course, my immediate reaction is, "No I didn't." But that opens a pandora's box, so I am trying to remember to go in another direction, such as "Do you like it?" People have been universally complimentary, which is reassuring. Though it's hard when this is not something I would ever choose, and I don't like it, but I am getting the idea that others don't find it horrific.
And it is EASY to take care of. And cheap. No shampoo, no conditioner, no brushing, no styling, dries in seconds and no salon - no dying, no cutting! I am oddly cold as I've never been in my life. I've never noticed the cold before until it was below freezing, but this year I started shivering after it got below 60 degrees! I wore the wig or a hat most of last winter, but don't bother now and can definitely tell that hair keeps you warm and I don't have enough!
I don't know what I will do with it long run. My plan is to wait until the new year and see what's going on then.