Thursday Thoughts: Somedays, I’m Glad to be Bald

Thursday Thoughts, Inspiration, Motivation, Alopecia Awareness

In the shroud of hot shower mist, I leaned against the cold tiles and let the water warm me. I stared out at the curtain allowing the silence to embrace me. Someone shared a new cancer diagnosis after seeing the “Ruck Cancer” t-shirt I was wearing. I took her hand and listened to her story. It’s what I do when someone approaches me thinking I have cancer.

The solitary bathroom moment was needed. I felt bad for this woman like I do with anyone facing a major health diagnosis. After losing one of my best friends to breast cancer at the same time I was going completely bald, seared compassion into my heart for anyone with a cancer diagnosis. No one asked my friend how she was feeling when we were together because, on the outside, she didn’t look like she had cancer. On the other hand, people approached me in front of her asking me about my cancer story. Assumptions can be painful.

Every time I step in the shower, I don’t have to use shampoo to wash my hair. I used to be annoyed my locks took so long to clean, dry, and style. Although I don’t miss the time it took to take care of it, I stop every once in a while, realizing a bald life, can be an acceptable life, once you surrender to the condition.

Alopecia is not a life-threatening condition. It is a life-altering one. Whether a person has patches of hair missing on their head, beard, or other body parts, or one or two eyebrows or eyelashes typically (not on the same eye), alopecia makes it difficult to look in the mirror and like what you see.

It has been nearly seven years since I became a totally bald woman. It took almost half that time to share my story and step out the door without a hat on. I feel naked baring a bald head and prefer the shelter of a hat. But today after hearing one more woman share her cancer story with me, I am simply glad to have alopecia.

Like my friend Teresa, I don’t have to worry about not being here for my children’s lives, their big and small moments, or watching my new granddaughter grow up. I am not in pain. I don’t suffer. Alopecia treatments are relatively mild. Never having hair again, means as long as I take care of myself, I can live a longer life than most people I know with a cancer diagnosis.

My wisdom for you today is to look in the mirror and accept who you are and the cards you’ve been dealt, and think of how much worse it could be if you weren’t given the hardships you deal with. Devastating news provides a lesson in looking at life differently, more positively I hope while being compassionate about other’s more difficult stories.

P.S. I was happy to donate to the Dana Farber Cancer Foundation today with my money earmarked for women’s cancers in light of my friend’s diagnosis. Give if you can to beat cancer.