Just recently, my mom was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphona. Apparently, her case is curable, but at Stage 3, I expect that it will be a long, hard road. I have surprised myself by suddenly choking up with emotion, mostly sad that she has to endure pain, hair loss, etc. Tomorrow, she will have her first round of chemo, and it will last for 12 hours.
When I found out about her diagnosis, the idea came to me to donate my hair directly to her for a wig. I have Oprah to thank for this good idea of mine - she did a show on donating hair to cancer patients, and brought Hilary Swank on as her guest. She had been growing her hair out in order to have Oprah cut it on the show and donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths organization. I was inspired when I saw the show years ago, and obviously it has stayed with me.
Donating hair directly to someone in need is tricky - many organizations want to protect the privacy of cancer patients. But my sister-in-law found an organization that will do it - she sent me a link to Caring and Comfort. I lop off the hair and secure the sections in ponytails, mail them to their address, and the wig maker color-treats it to match my mom's preferred hair color. It will be mixed with other hair as well, but my hair will be in there too.
The other night, Peter and I were watching "Tangled" (like you do when you have a 2 year old, and while you could watch anything you want while he's asleep, you end up watching cartoons). At the end (spoiler alert), her hair breaks off and turns brown - and she's left with this cute, short hair - and I thought, "hey, I actually like her hair - I wonder how that would look on me?"
Yeah, I know. Cartoon=not real. Can't help it, I think it's cute. And now I'm poaching images off the Internet to put them on my blog.
I do have weird, mixed feelings about giving my hair up - mostly though, I feel good about doing something that's so easy for me, which will mean so much to someone who has to go through this.
I have a hair appointment in 2 days - if I go through with it, I will post photos.
