Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Wigging out

The odd thing that preceded my hair's sudden departure by two to three days was a scalp tenderness. I likened it to what I thought a concussion might feel like. It was actually tender to the touch. And I suspected that might mean that fallout was imminent. Sort of like the hair threw itself a going-away party, overindulged and stuck me with the hangover headache.

The headache left about the same time as the hair. But the hair fallout became really annoying. I was constantly inspecting my shoulders to see if I was shedding. And shampooing each day was, of course, becoming a longer process. Soak, lather, then spend 10 minutes removing the hair from my wet hands. Rinse. Remove more hair from my hands. I put up with it for a week and wore the hat to work. Went to TJ Maxx (like the best garage sale in the world) and bought a couple more hats -- a white cotton summer one and a purple felt hat with a red band. I wore it when we went out to breakfast one morning and was asked if I was a member of the Red Hat Club. No, I responded, I'm a member of a quite different club (one that no one really fights to get into).

It was time to check out that cranial prosthesis. I stopped after work at a hair salon that specialized in wigs for chemo and alopecia victims. My own hair stylist had suggested that I go with human hair, but I actually liked the acrylic wigs better. The maintenance was easier and styling was not required. Wash it and it falls right back to its style. I tried on several and settled on one that had a similar length and cut to my own hair (only better) and had a little more blond highlighting than what I had been sporting. They ordered it for me and I would have it in a week, at which point it would be customized to fit and trimmed as I wanted it.

Finally came the weekend and I decided to just speed up the process and pull out as much hair as I could. It was surprisingly easy and I filled up the sink with it. What remained made me look like the man in the moon peeking out of cirrus clouds. Just a few wisps on the top and sides of my head. I can't tell you how attractive I felt. There was no sobfest, but I would have to say it wasn't the highlight of my week. I was mentally prepared for it, and it's a temporary, albeit admittedly depressing, situation. Of course, the problem now was that with so little hair, my hat tended to bobble on my head. I kept adjusting the brim to keep it centered. Terrific. Now I'm a balding bobblehead.

It was beginning to look like a pretty long week 'til that cranial prosthesis arrived.

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