Amy's America

Yup – that’s me, today. I went to work today bald. No hat, no wig, no scarf. And it actually wasn’t even that hard, even though I swore I would never do it. I’ll never forget – what seems like a lifetime ago but was probably just a month – sitting on my couch with Mike, who was helping me pick out a pre-bald short haircut from a magazine, and talking about going back to work during chemo. “You mean you’ll go to work bald?” he asked. I said, of course, when I’m feeling well enough, but never actually bald – I’ll wear hats and wigs – I would never go bare-headed. I guess some times you really don’t know what you’ll do until you do it!

To be honest, it’s not that I am taking a stand or anything, or suddenly felt comfortable with how I look. I just hate wearing things on my head. I am not a big one for hats and the wigs just feel weird. So I just stopped wearing them at home, and finally just said screw it, why wear one out, either? Of course, I will be smart and continue to wear a hat at least outside so I don’t burn my poor scalp, but otherwise have simply given up on vanity and worrying what other people think. I did consider whether to actually go to work without anything on my head, simply because I didn’t want to make anyone else feel uncomfortable, but I talked it through with Nick and he assured me it would be fine. And he was right. Everyone at work was fabulous, encouraging and supportive, as usual. I am very blessed to work there!

Being bald isn’t as bad as I thought. In fact, I never really thought about it at all before all this. A few people, after being very sweet and complementing me on the shape of my head (at least it’s not completely deformed), mentioned how they imagine their head. I really never imagined mine – and hoped I’d never find out! But here are some pros:

• I never worry about if my hair is messed up.
• It is much cooler (temperature-wise).
• It takes one second to wash my head.
• It takes one second to dry my head.
• It takes no time to style!

I do practically jump every time I look in the mirror or see my shadow, because I constantly forget I’m bald – it’s just not how I see myself in my head. I still have long brown hair in my mind. And I know I will again someday… well, who knows if it will be brown, based on how many people have told me stories of hair growing back totally different! Yet another thing that we’ll have to wait and see.

But for now, I will embrace the bald, and hold my head up high, as advised by my wise son. And when people give me those strange looks on the street and I can tell they are wondering if I’m sick or a skin head, I will smile reassuringly if they seem nice or give them a glare if not. And when I’m feeling up to it, maybe I’ll try the blonde wig or the long brown one. But who needs hair? It takes so much time! 😉