Hair or no hair. That was the question.

So I shaved my head about a week ago on a Friday evening. I ran around the house most of the weekend in little hats or turbans. Shortly after I found out the hair was going to be coming out again, I found a little website called http://www.headcovers.com/. I love it. I bought a few different things as options to the wig. The Sunday night after I was officially hairless, I put on my wig and wandered around the house for a little while to get used to it again before I had to wear it to work the next day. After ten minutes I was ready to scratch my head raw. It was awful. My scalp is still a little enflamed and itchy from my Dermatomyositis, but now there is no light hair buffer between the skin and wig and it was a just unbearable. I knew I couldn't wear the wig to work the next day. I'd last an hour tops and then would just have to run around bald the rest of the day. As entertaining as that might have been to watch people's reactions, I learned fairly quickly that your head gets really cold with no hair, especially in the winter, so I wasn't sure I was up for it.

So...I got out a couple of scarfs that I have and started experimenting. I went to work the next day in a scarf wrapped around my head. It was really quite comfortable. Later that day I picked up a long, oblong shaped scarf, one that was meant to wrap around your neck and figured out how to wrap it in a turban of sorts and wore that one the next day. I think I'm sold. When it's all said and done, for me the scarves are the way to go.

I'm not speaking for every female Cancer patient that has to do this, but for me, this is how it panned out:

When I wore a wig for several months earlier this year there were always some people who knew it was a wig (because I'd told them) and some people who didn't. I was always the most anxious about the people who didn't know. Constantly wondering if my hair was on straight, if they could tell it was fake, if I was one of those people that a total stranger could look at and think, "Oh, that is such a bad hairpiece." Then there were the people who already knew. These were the people that you caught staring at you when they thought you weren't looking, trying to figure out that if I hadn't told them it was a wig, if they would have known on their own. They were always looking for some sign like the fact that my hairline was always moving, making my bangs a lot longer one day than they were the day before. That was sometimes a little tiring. Sometimes I found myself just saying to them, "What? Is my hair on crooked?" Sometimes they laughed, sometimes they were a little embarrased. By that time I really didn't care too much.

With the scarf, there is none of that. People look at you, they know you have no hair, and they move on with life. Much simpler. Now my only problem is the challenge of coming up with new head styles. Many of my coworkers said they were impressed with the scarves and said they wanted me to teach them how to tie them that way. I said, "Sure! But you're going to have to shave your heads first. It doesn't quite work the same if you have hair." I'm not sure how many takers I'll have.

Could be fun to see how far I can push HR's dress code at work though. My sister-in-law sent me a bright red "Doo-Rag." (That's what my husband calls it. Not sure why.) I love it. It's so comfortable. Makes me look like a biker. I think I just might wear that to work sometime this week and see what happens.