Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.

I knew it was coming. But part of me was hoping that it wouldn't.... that maybe, just maybe, I'd be an exception to the standard, and maybe my hair wouldn't fall out. I mean, I think I'm an exception to the standard of inflammatory breast cancer, so why not the hair thing? Google told me (I googled it once and NEVER.WILL.AGAIN.... y'all please don't either.. google is the devil when it comes to cancer information)... but anyways the Google devil did tell me that the median age of somebody diagnosed with IFB is 60, and that it's prevalent among obese black women. I may have gained a pound or two this past year and rocked a pretty solid tan after my summer of fun, but... I'm pretty sure that I'm not any of those things, and here I am with IFB. But yeah, the hair thing. It happened, and it was horrible.

Obviously, nobody wants their hair to fall out, ever, but to be 28 years old, working in the competitive TV industry in a top 5 market in a city full of beautiful, and sometimes superficial women, well yeah, it sucks. And it has been bothering me more than anything else with this whole ordeal. Not only would it affect my emotions and confidence, but it literally affects my job. I can't be on TV- or try and get more jobs where I'm on TV- without hair. I'm no Robin Roberts. My nurse knew how much the inevitable hair loss was bothering me and informed me of a small business here in Dallas called Folicure. Folicure helped another patient of hers who was competing in beauty pageants while going through chemo, and she said they could help me too. So I called up John at Folicure who would become my new best friend. I told him my situation and he was so nice and told me I had called the right place, and that they would be happy to help me. I went in for a consultation that same week. (About two weeks ago.) I brought moral support with me in the form of one of my uber fashionable and super cute Dallas besties, Molly. (Molly is also my "blogrunner" and helped me get this thing going!! Love you Molls!) So she and I went in to meet the nice people at Folicure, and I left feeling so much better about what was a-head. ;) I lived the next couple weeks just as I normally would- I looked like myself and- most of the time, felt like myself, even though I had cancer. Chemo treatments started a week after my diagnosis. I'll blog more about chemo later. (Bet ya'll can't wait for that!) ;) Anyways, I was told that my hair would start coming out 14 days after my first treatment, (Which was also the day of my second treatment.) And guess what... I rocked the shit out of those last 14 days with my hair. I cherished every second of it. I did some amazing things in those 14 days. I walked in the Dallas Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event, had lots of laughs with my amazing friends, had some very special out of town visitors, and even dropped the puck at the Dallas Stars game last week in honor of Hockey Fights Cancer night. (It was unreal!) Those 14 days were amazing, and I even think I was still a bit in denial that my hair was going to fall out. But it did.

I had an appointment booked at Folicure last Friday which would have been 16 days after my chemo treatment, 2 days past the estimated date of hair loss. The catch with the fabulous wig that I had ordered is that my head had to be shaved to put it on. Thursday night, the night I dropped the puck, I had close to a full head of hair and was feeling good about things. I wasn't ready to have my head shaved. I guess I got a case of "cold head" :) So I canceled Friday's appointment and scheduled a new one for Wednesday of the following week. (Today...eek)  Folicure was closed on Monday and I had to work a 10 hour day on Tuesday so Wednesday was the best possible option. A lot changed from Friday to Wednesday. My hair starting coming out in huge clumps, and I was filling up trashcan after trashcan of hair each day. It was disgusting. I salvaged a messy bun for a wedding I attended on Saturday night in Austin, but Sunday I woke up looking like a member of the Jamaican bobsled team.  I called over my brother's girlfriend and my best friend Jessie, and they helped me comb out the nappy mess on my head and gave me a hair cut to keep the clumping to a minimum. My sweet mom drove me back to Dallas that afternoon so I could go shoot a Halloween edition of my show at Six Flags Fright Fest. I felt like I could have been one of the monsters in one of their many haunted houses. Things got a lot worse on Monday, but I wore a cute hat to work, and by Tuesday it was finally real. I looked like a cancer patient. Wednesday morning's appointment couldn't come soon enough. So today was the day. My bf and I (yay, he's back in town!) arrived at Folicure this morning at 8:30 and I COULDN'T WAIT to have my head shaved. In about an hour and a half my head was shaved, a mold was made for my next "system" (not wig, system), and I had nice blonde hair once again. :) It's a permanent wig that was bonded on to my head. I'll get a new one in six weeks that is going to be custom made for me- but this one is going to be pretty good til then! It's a little too blonde- kind of Dolly Parton-esque in color, but it's pretty and it's hair and I'm so thankful for it. It feels like I'm just wearing a really tight skull cap, so it will take some getting used to, but I took a successful nap this afternoon so I'm hoping that sleeping won't be a problem. Let me just say this... all you people out there with hair, please don't let one day pass where you don't appreciate it! Sometimes it's the little things we take for granted in life. Once my hair starts to grow back I'm going to love on it so hard.

It's been a rough week but I'm happy and I'm healthy and I'm "hair"... and that's what matters.  Until next time! XOXO