There's someone I've run into a few times over the last few weeks that has spray-on hair. It's patchy hair mixed with paint, plus paint on the bald spots. Ever since I noticed it, I run into this person everywhere. Yesterday, I noticed that not only is his head sprayed-painted, but his beard is too. It got me to thinking about hair and what is so important about it, or lack thereof, that would make someone spray paint it on their head?
My thoughts then drifted to my Mother and how anxious she is knowing that she will likely lose all of her hair during the course of her chemo treatments -- not just the hair on her head, but her eyebrows and eyelashes too. I keep telling her she's beautiful anyway and "it's just hair and it'll grow back" .... " wigs are fun" ... "just think, you won't have to shave your legs" .... and trying to make her feel better about the temporary hair problem. I think she's coming to terms with it, but she really won't be happy until she has her own hair back. I guess I don't blame her.
Originally, I was just going to write about hair, but as I got ready for work this morning I realized that most people really do care how their appearance is perceived by others. I looked at myself in the mirror and reflected on the things that hide my unmentionables from the rest of the world. Let's just say, my savior has not been a can of spray paint, but modern medicine. Without it, I'd have looked in the mirror this morning at a 300-pound amputee with a cleft lip. Ew, not a very pretty picture. My cleft lip and weight problem were fixed by surgeons, for both health and cosmetic reasons. If I had broken my elbow 100 years ago, there would have been no such thing as replacement surgery and they would have probably amputated my arm. Granted, these were not just cosmetic procedures, but I could've survived without any of them and look where I would've been. And that's just the medical stuff. I haven't even started on my need for make-up, control-tops, and hair coloring. I realized if I looked like that and I could fix it with a can of spray paint, you'd better believe I'd be spraying myself from head to toe every day of my life.
Next time I see the guy with the spray-painted head, I think I'll look at him a little differently. I still don't necessarily think that spray-painting yourself is the most effective way of diverting attention, but who am I to talk.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
RSS Feed (xml)
5 comments:
It's amazing what one focuses on when they are sick. My husband was bald since I met him 15 years ago and he worried about losing HIS hair from chemotherapy treatments, too.
Sandi
i know. it's a bizarre phenomenon. the first thing my mom did was go get her passport picture taken and renewed so she wouldn't have to go 10 years with a bald pic on her p-port. i guess you get control wherever you can.
I have problems looking at guys with toupees ... especially the ones that are a different color and look like they are floating above their heads ... I mean, at the very least, if you are going to wear a toupee, get a good one that fits .... what's wrong with the bald look, anyway?
If I could spray paint my a$$ and thighs off - you can bet I'd be in the lab mixing up a vat of that stuff.
On a serious note, my Dad was pretty upset when he found out he would lose his hair just before my wedding. He called to let me know and told me he felt bad because he would "look funny". Without missing a beat, I said "Dad, you have always looked funny. Hair has nothing to do with it". We both laughed ourselves silly; and to be honest, I never think "bald" when I look at the pix from that day ... I think of Sue falling face down drunk into my parents guest room, but never that Dad was bald.
los - that reminds me of someone else i see all the time with a toupee that looks more like a uses SOS bad. eww, gross!!
gee -- i'd forgotten about sue's visit to your parent's room. hilarious!!!!
Post a Comment