Everything you wanted to know about hair loss

Hair loss is one of the difficult parts about chemo for a lot women. I am blessed enough to have a hair dresser for a younger sister. This allows me to take control of my hair and turn it into something fun. I can tell when my hair is getting ready to start falling out. My scalp is tender and sore for a few days before it starts falling out in clumps. It feels like a dull headache and hurts to brush it. Cutting the hair shorter makes my scalp not hurt as much. It takes the weight of the hair down, which relieves headache somewhat. I like doing the hair cutting party as soon as I barely touch it, and I get handfuls of hair out. Since we did this last minute, my family got to watch via Facetime.

Wil had been growing his "protest beard" since before surgery. He was protesting cancer and was waiting until the hair cutting party to trim it into new and fun styles!

 

Here is our before picture. 

 

Facetime with my two of my sisters. We ran out of Apple products, so my baby sister, Anna, got to see pictures!

 

Lauren, my sister, walked us through how to cut my hair into a short Mohawk.

 

 

My sister-in-law, Holly, helping my niece Hailey take some chunks out. Every little girl loves cutting hair! Holly had to clarify that Hailey is only allowed to cut teal hair. So far, all of her own hair is still intact!

 

 

Our one and only nephew, Hunter, is so sweet!

 

Father-in-law, Ted, took a whack at it. His tongue was hanging out the whole time.

 

Time for Wil!

 

Brother-in-law, Doug and niece Daphne were able to enjoy the show too.

 

Lauren!

 

Lauren was Facetiming Mom too!

 

And the clippers come out

 

 

Everyone can see why I have the pink streak on my head now. Some think that I have a scratch but it just where a hot pink highlight was!

 

I'm all done! This is one of my favorite shirts, Wil got it for me for my birthday. Fits my attitude :)

 

Going from a beard....

 

To a fumanchu!

 

 

Yes, I even put little rubber bands in it! Wil had to shave it later into the full blown fumanchu. He had that for the race and put blue dye in it too.

 

This was a two step process. I wanted to keep my Mohawk for the Athena's Run. I made sure for that week that I had it, not to wash it much and not mess with it. Otherwise, it would just come right out. So the night after the run, it was just coming out, with a slight tug, you would have a handful of hair. I don't want you to think that we are always happy, this was really tough for me. Wil hit the nail on the head when he said that everything else with my hair had been on my terms. I dyed it when I wanted, I cut it into a Mohawk when I wanted, but it fell out when chemo wanted. I cried, more like wept, while Wil held me. So then Wil and I went out on the back porch after my family left, and we buzzed the rest of it off.  I hate the shedding process. For me, I wish it would just all jump ship at the same time. I don't like it looking patchy. With me getting weekly chemo, I think it has changed my hair this go around. I still have some hair, as you can tell from our weekly posts. We will see if I keep more of it this time!

 

 



 Before shaving the Mohawk. You can see how much fell out!

 

Wil's before picture.

After! (you can still see the pink stripe!)

 

Wil's cop-like mustache. He only kept this for one day. He shaved it all off and had a baby face for about a week until his beard grew back in. He has had some sort of facial hair since high school. It was fun to see how different he looked with different facial hair.