03 Sep The Best Bad Hair Day Ever!

From the time I was a little girl I dreamed of one day sitting in a barber shop and having my hair shaved off.

Not really.

But chemo makes your hair fall out and eventually you are left with… not so much hair. So you either walk around sporting a really bad comb-over, or you buzz it off.

I woke up last Friday morning and I knew it was the day. After crying my eyes out while shampooing my hair out (literally), all I could think of was that I wanted my mom. I’m not embarrassed to tell you that at 51 years old I still need my Mother. Or maybe it’s that after 41 years of trying to not need her, I now find that I need her more than ever. I’m having a moment here. A revelation.

So I phoned home to Orlando and cried my heart out to my mom in Orlando as I combed my hair out in Dallas.

My hair, my mom and me go way back. She used to do all kinds of “fun” things to my hair growing up. My sister, LuAnn, and I were her favorite Guinea pigs when it came to hair cuts (remember the pixie and the shag) and perms (remember the smell). Mother even liked to try out her own salon techniques at home… on us! She was the one who introduced us to “a lighter shade of pale” long before highlighting your hair was a fashionable must-do. I’ll admit that at times it was hit or miss with the color or the cut, but hey – it’s hair; it grows back! At least that’s what I always prayed when she’d trim my bangs to within one inch of my scalp. I have the pictures to prove it. Anyway – last Friday, when my hair was hitting the floor, I needed my mom… and it was perhaps the sweetest time I’ve had with her in a long, long time. She cried with me, comforted me, and assured me it would be alright. It blessed me; it blessed her, and it was the next best thing to a hug that she could give me at that moment. Glory to you, Lord. That’s just a sweet moment if I’ve ever had one. I thank the Lord for my mom!

Off I went to the Lover’s Lane Barber Shop and Manicurists! There is no more fun and happy place in Dallas… maybe on the planet, than the good ol’ LLBS! Friday is my regular nail appointment with my friend (and fabulous manicurist), KK and I truly look forward to it the whole week long! I love the manicure, but that’s just the icing on the cake. The people are authentic and the fellowship is the best!

If you’ve never been to the LLBS you are missing out on a great big part of life and fun! Big things happen at the LLBS. For instance, my friend Debbie got engaged there. In the middle of her pedicure… got engaged to be married. Right there at the LLBS.

Birthdays are celebrated in the grandest way at the LLBS – with hot dogs, fixins and Casa Linda Bakery birthday cake. Only the best, y’all. Only the best.

The LLBS is family. You laugh there; you cry there. That’s where I broke the news the day I got my BC diagnosis, and so it was only fitting that I should have my “shearing” there as well. And only the LLBS could turn a BAD HAIR DAY into the BEST BAD HAIR DAY EVER!

After my manicure KK had arranged for Linda, the female barber, to cut what remained on my head. It was a celebration, with some of my best buddies along to ride it out with me including my handsome John – who had his own hair buzzed off after mine… to show me his love and support (as if I didn’t already know that he’s crazy about me!!).  One of my precious “Bosom Buddies” (my name for other BC gals), Linda, and her wonderful husband, Brooks, showed up to encourage me as well!  It was five years ago that Brooks brought Linda to the LLBS for her very own shearing. Now she’s five years healed and looking fine! Praise the Lord!!

My handsome man – in his pink shirt, came to give me some lovin!

Brooks and Linda, and Lila support me pre-shearing!

Being the great friends that they all are they assured me that I looked beautiful without hair. They are either big liars or they see something I don’t. I must say that I never realized how small my head was until all that ton of hair came off. My oh my, Lord! I never thought something that hard and stubborn could be so small!

All my pals in my face cheering me on!!

Yikes!

Now I have this kinda Sigourney Weaver thing going on (here I go with the movie comparisons again) – remember how she looked in the movie Aliens? Actually, now that I think about it I’m the one that looks like an alien. But then again, I am an alien – according to I Peter 2:11… just passing through this place called earth; not fitting in here and becoming like the natives, but being refreshingly different in a world of sameness; making a difference, having a positive impact and leaving a legacy.

Here’s the gang… and that’s me in the middle. The bald one!

We only get one trip around this planet, friends, and we’d better make the most of it… and make it count. Hair or no hair.

Pressing on with Him ~
Punky