Hair. You would not believe how important it is until you don’t have any. Before chemo I resented how fast my hair would grow because that just meant spending buckets of money to cover up my roots. (Not really girls, my hair is naturally that tortoise shell color.) Hair showed up parts of my body that I had no idea could sprout hair, at least not on a woman. And don’t get me started on shaving, ack!

But when you don’t have any hair, life is different. Your face looks different, deciding what to wear is different and I know people look at you differently. They can’t help it. You just don’t see many women without hair walking around. We are a rare breed.

In general, bald is not a good look. Until recently, I haven’t even been able to walk around the house bald, certainly not in front of Scott and Nick. Now, maybe because it is hotter out, I have been able to be in the house without a do rag, however I have one near by in case someone comes to the door.

Hats. In public, my head covering of choice has been a hat. This is easy but not perfect. You can easily see if you look closely that I have no hair around the edges. And hats have their down side as well. I was having lunch with Scott at Cheesecake Factory last week, had my halo hair on with a cute hat. Beautiful day, sunny, warm but not hot, kind of breezy, we ate out on the patio and it was just lovely. After lunch, I thought I would run over to Sephora, I crossed the street and all of a sudden, I wasn’t protected from the wind by the buildings. Whoosh, there goes the hat and I am on the sidewalk with the halo hair and a bald head. I moved pretty fast for an old woman with cancer. But what are you going to do. It probably looked pretty funny. You know how you laugh when you see someone fall on the ice. You can’t help it. I even laughed. So wind is a definite problem with hats.

Scarves. I just don’t have any that seem to be the right size and shape. They are hard to find without fringe, and even if I could tie it to have the fringe act like bangs, they just seem like they would get in the way. I twist them and tie them, but then the knot comes loose. I think the silky fabric I have just isn’t the right thing. I categorize my do rags in with the scarves. These are easy and cool, but make me look like Aunt Jemima.

Wigs. I am glad you all seem to like my wig. I do. But it still seems unnatural. It is hot, heavy, uncomfortable and always seems like it is slipping. It probably isn’t really slipping, I just have to pat it down to make sure. You will probably see me tugging on it at some point. I figure that is better than having a reenactment of the Sephora incident.

So there just seems to be no easy answer. I will mix and match and just see what comes up. But next time you see a woman with no hair, try not to stare. Just take notes on what kind of hat, scarf, do rag or wig she is wearing and call me!