The return of the hair

I had chemotherapy when my lung mets were first diagnosed.  Your usual sort of intravenous chemo that makes you feel sicky and your hair fall out.  Then I had whole brain radiotherapy when the brain mets were discovered.  Apparently, WBR can cause hair loss and affect regrowth.

I'm a pretty hairy person and am lucky enough to have a nicely shaped skull, so losing my hair didn't bother me much. I looked alright and it saved me time. There were odd places that the hair hung on - my bikini line, for example. Now, tell me, how can that be fair? This may be TMI but the rest of my pubes fell out, why not the fringe that sticks out from my knickers?

Anyway, recently my hair has been regrowing. At a tremendous rate. Everywhere. Except on my head. I decided that was it. It seemed clear I was going to be bald forever. Fine, I can deal with that. Hats for warmth, hats for sun protection, maybe even a wig (tho I'm not a big wig lover. They're too... wiggy).

But no. It was just taking its own sweet time, my head hair. I have growth. It's not beautiful, not by any stretch of the imagination.  I don't wear my specs in the bathroom so hadn't clocked what it looks like, but when Mr W asked me this morning whether I would like him to shave my neck, I knew it must be pretty bad. He's a very sensitive chap, Mr W, and will do anything to avoid making me feel bad about my appearance. If he thought it needed shaving, well, it must be a bit 'orrible.

I got him to take some photos of my head - have you any idea how difficult it is to take pictures of your own head? It's difficult and the photos I'd managed were to blurry to make anything out. The pictures he took told a sorry story: basically my hair appears to be growing back in classic male pattern baldness shape, if that makes sense.  This is compounded by the furry fringe on my neck and a weird but quite cool round shape on the back that is growing really quick.  You couldn't make it up.  I have tried and tried and tried but cannot work out how to upload the illustration. I think I'll just put in the next post all on its own.

Oh, and the other thing is that the hair is coming back curly. I'd forgotten that from last time. Like a flippin black sheep or something. Groovy.