So I had just brightened up my hair with some sun kissed blonde bleach, and my mom had just bought me a brand spanking new Chi hair straightener for my 40th birthday present. Because I would never spend that kind of money on myself. It wasn't cheap. Even with a coupon and my birthday discount at Ulta. And then mere days later I was told all of my hair would soon be gone. Figures. Go ahead and put that in your Alanis Morisette "Ironic" song pipe and smoke it. Then take another toke.
I had a little less than a week to get an MRI, EKG, meet with a surgeon, oncologist, my students, principal, and keep on mothering. Basically I had time to get my hair cut off on Monday afternoon. And my beautiful hair stylist Nikki's salon wasn't open that day. So she had me come over to her kitchen. My sister-in-law Tia came with me and took pics. They drank wine and I couldn't. Of course. because I was getting my port put in the next morning. And apparently you're not supposed to get drunk hours before surgery.
Luckily I wasn't really freaking out. I was still in robot mode emotionally since my diagnosis. Whatever. I had looked butch before. Especially from 1983-1986. Social services should have been called on my mother for allowing such heinous haircuts. I looked transgender before transgender was cool. Target would have been the only public bathroom I would have been allowed to tinkle in. I actually had big plans of recreating my rat tail and mullet hairstyles, but alas, I didn't want to interrupt my stylist's snipping.
 |
| 1984ish. Soon the mullet was cut off and I was left with a rat tail. |
 |
| Monday April 11, 2016. One week after diagnosis. |
I had big plans of being a martyr and coming full circle and donating my own locks of love. Because my hair was long. So I asked to donate it....and the response from Nikki was something like "Aww hell no. This hair is way too processed and bleached!" But stated in a much nicer way. So into the garbage it went. Let me tell you that cutting off that much hair takes time. And I kept telling her to keep going shorter. I am soooooo glad I did. I hope none of you EVER find yourself in this position, but if you do, CUT.IT.OFF. It's horrifying when it starts coming out, and I can't imagine it being long and coming out.
Two hours later I had a pixie cut. It didn't last long, and my brother Kurt put a side by side pic of me and Robin Wright Penn together comparing us. He thought I should have known who her character was from House of Cards or Game of Cards or something like that. But I have 3 kids and haven't watched TV in 7 years. Many more people told me I looked like Kate from Jon and Kate Plus 8. I wanted to throat punch them. Lucky for Javier, Jamison, and Kim M., I held back! They should probably get a gold medal for bravery though!
My sweet stylist Nikki was so nice to have me over to her home on her day off to do this. She didn't even charge me--and that was more than just a snip of the split ends. She is going to have some good juju coming her way!
I made by big haircut debut at the baseball field immediately after it was chopped. The kids and Clay were already up there. The first blessing I spotted was Caroline. Her reaction was priceless. She saw me, stared at me, figured out it was finally me, and said..."What the what! I like your hair long Mom!" Kate was super sweet and told me I was still pretty, and Levi laughed. Even Clay didn't recognize me at first. But the best were the facial expressions of other moms at the ball park. Most people did not know about my cancer diagnosis yet, so when I showed up looking like Kate Gosselin, they were a little taken aback. But tried to pretend they loved my new do.
No comments:
Post a Comment