The Hair Thing

On  SATC when Samantha was diagnosed with breast cancer and faced losing her hair she went wig shopping. As she sat in the chair trying on a few wigs, disliking most of them, she told the wig guy "my hair is my thing"  And isn't that so true.  I know it was for me.

I had a harder time losing my hair during chemo than losing my boob.  I hated wearing a wig and I didn't have the balls to rock the bald head.  Samantha had fun with wigs ranging in style from L'il Kim, to blond bombshell and even Foxy Brown.  She rocked them all.  I hated wearing mine and yet wouldn't leave the house without it.  Ironically though I received more compliments on my wig than I had on my real hair!  

I often wonder why hair is such a huge deal.  Especially for women.  Maybe because it is a part of our sexuality, a form of expression, and sometimes it is something we can hide behind.  And of course there is the belief that men love long hair.  I recently watched one of those makeover shows and the woman didn't care about the clothes they put her in or the makeup they put on her face.  Hell, they could've put warpaint on her face and she didn't seem to care.  But having her hair cut off short sent tears streaming down her cheeks within seconds.  The followup at the end of the episode showed her getting extensions.  Apparently a life without long hair was one she couldn't handle.  

I too have cried over a bad haircut and a bad color job until I was bald.  Now there's a bad hair day!  So I can't help but get mad at myself today if  I complain about my hair.  I certainly am much better about it and really don't shed tears over a bad haircut anymore.  I guess sometimes I feel like being a cancer survivor instantly revokes my right to sweat the small stuff at times.  

How did you handle the hair thing during your treatment?  Did you wig out or rock the bald head?  Did losing your hair make you appreciate it all the more when it grew back?

Gray Area

Losing my hair to chemo was pretty devastating.  When it grew back I vowed to never color it again.  I had damaged it so much before cancer that I am surprised it didn't fall out then.  Last spring I started noticing a few too many new gray hairs cropping up.  I decided to go with highlights.  I wanted less chemicals going into my scalp and I figured that highlights could camouflage the gray areas.  

It has been almost a year since I caved and I have had it done one other time trying to stretch the root touch ups as much as I can but my hair grows like a chia pet. Nothing to complain about, I know.   The other day when I was drying my hair I noticed that there are broken pieces along the part.  Little spikes broken off at the grown out root.  This more than bothered me.  I wondered if I was the only one.  I wondered if I should continue. What I really wondered was could I stop and just go gray?

I had been pulling out my stray grays.   But now there are a few too many to use that as my solution.   I swore when my hair grew back I would just be happy to have hair.  That I would never complain about a bad hair day again.  And I usually don't.  Till now.   I know that compared to being bald this is nothing.  And then I wonder why it bothers me so.  

Would you ever go gray?  Are you concerned about chemicals in hair dye?  What is your solution?