Two and a half years ago, I called my husband into the bedroom and asked him to get his hair clippers out.
I then asked him to shave all of my hair off. He tried to negotiate terms. I pointed out that yet again, TemplePatch and NapePatch were growing at such a rate that the hair seemed to be spirited away overnight! Where was it going? Even now I don’t understand what Alopecia does with the hair it steals. It probably comes out whilst you’re combing, however it really looks and feels like it just disappears. So that poor man took the brunt of it. I wailed, sniffed and shouted at him to shave it all off and then he bravely suggested that I should just persevere and that my hair would eventually grow back. I wasn’t having that! Did he want me to look like a clown? They had tufts of hair for comedic effect. Was I a joke to him? How dare he try and say something to try and make me feel better! Who did he think he was saying helpful things like ‘stop crying so much because you’ll get a migraine’. It’s MY head and I know that stress and snot crying often sets me off. I wanted to be dramatic and silly and not a grown up about having to shave my hair off and here he was being sensible. Some people. He eventually shaved it off to ‘shine short’. I think I scarred him for life! And that was when I began to wear a HairHat. From shine short to ‘fro, my wigs have been invaluable. These days, they are my protective style of choice, but even so, I still have to protect my hair from them.
Wigs work for me, but only when I treat my own hair with respect. So I have to eat, drink and sleep right because when I’m nice to my hair, it thrives. Need to work on the sleep and drinking water thing…
0 Comments
Now where did we leave that ginger biscuit wielding 11 year old? Oh but how could I forget? At the Dermatologist with his needles of Cortisone! The 11 year old was snot crying, pleading with her hapless Father to spare her from the pain. Her Mother had withdrawn from Injection Duty after failing to cope, and her Father now understood why. Watery eyes, flowing snot and hiccup screams were the reason. The injections stopped. This was before widespread use of the W.W.W. and no, you chuckling so-and-so. It wasn’t before the Internet, just before the widespread use of it, so the Father went to the local pharmacy to get advice. The Pharmacist told him of a new topical treatment derived from high blood pressure medication called Minoxidil, however there was a catch: it wasn’t available in the country. Joy. Not locally available AND costly to import. Temple and Nape Patch alike continued to grow and the ongoing concealment of their progress was becoming increasingly challenging. The parents had no choice – they had the pills imported and the helpful Pharmacist mixed them up and there you have it – Topical Minoxidil (2%). Gloves were purchased because the ointment was not to make contact with unafflicted skin. It was applied sparingly twice a day and each application was puncuated by verbal reminders from The Father to not 'use too much! Do you know how much that small thing costs?' That, dear Reader, was the begining of PatchWatch: the Series. |
Ramblings about me, my 'Fro & all things mine - family, friends, faith & work. Archives
April 2016
Categories |