Hair -- Part 1

Well, I lost a lot of hair yesterday...

at the barbershop.

In military terminology, this might be called a double pre-emptive strike:

First of all, as most of you know, chemotherapy can disable your hair follicles temporarily and cause any existing hair to fall out. Like all over. Eyelashes, eyebrows, arms, legs. Seriously, all over...

But I may not lose all of my hair to chemo -- or maybe not even most of my hair to chemo. Or I may not lose any hair at all to chemo. It turns out that there over a hundred different pharmaceuticals that might be used for chemo -- either stand-alone or in conjunction with others (a.k.a., a "cocktail"). And my stand-alone drug, called Cisplatin, does not normally make the patient bald.

Hey!!

But I needed a haircut anyway, so I stopped in to see my barber and, just in case, told him to cut my hair much shorter than usual. (After all, I'd rather have it cut and leave it on his floor than have it fall out and clog the drain in my bathtub.)

Secondly, my radiation doc (as opposed to my chemo doc) tells me that his treatment is likely to permanently disable the hair follicles on my left cheek down to and including chinline, so the full beard that I've been sporting for the last 10 years or so seems doomed forever. This is a little tough, because I first grew the beard in the badlands of Alberta on one of my first dinosaur digs. And I thought about those wonderful days every time I looked in the mirror and decided -- once again -- not to shave.

Ah, the follicles of youth...

So after the top-of-the-head issue was decided, I asked my barber for his opinion: should we leave a goatee? mustache only? clean shaven? And he sensibly pointed out that doing a goatee leaves the other two options readily available. So that's what we did.

I think the goatee makes me look like Brad Pitt. From the point of the chin to just under the nose. If you ignore everything else. Including the color of the hair.

Bottom line "A": next time you see me, I will certainly have less hair on my top and sides of my head -- and maybe none at all.

Bottom line "B": with one chemo session and two radio sessions done, this is the biggest problem I've had to face. Color me grateful!