When you lose your hair

[Erin]

As you can see from my picture I chose to go ahead and shave my head as most others do. My neighbor (in the pic) is a hair dresser and did it for me in her garage. We are a very close group of families who live on a cul-de-sac so all the ladies got together at my house for lemon drop martinis, and, properly fortified, we trooped over to her house for the big event. We invited all the husbands and kids as well and made quite a party of it :-)

I am just past my third TCH and there is still some sparse hair that has not fallen out (mostly the grey - dang it!), and what is there is actually growing - go figure! It is soft and not at all uncomfortable now, though it was very tender during the falling-out process.

Having not lost all the hair I thought I would, I was just questioning myself the other day about why I went ahead and shaved it. It certainly would be easier to "pass" right now if I had let it thin out and kept a little at the ears, neck and bangs to make the scarves and hats look more natural. But, I remember hating that I was shedding everywhere....really gross. I was actually uncomfortable preparing even my own food....and my natural hair was short to begin with. Also, I wanted to be in control of the outcome. I hated the idea that I would wake up one day missing clumps (which is what would have happened), and then trying to make myself presentable for work at 8am without being emotionally prepared for it.

I shaved my hair on a Saturday, after I had bought a wig, some hats and scarves. That gave me a day at home to play with them and prepare for my first day "out" without hair.

This is so very personal a decision...best of luck to you :-)