Growing Pains

Today I used my hairdryer.

This is a cause for celebration: nine months have passed since the Head Shave and I finally have some hair to dry!  On the other hand, I've also had nine months of pulling a wig or hat over my baldie head and not having to worry about wayward hair. 

A month or so ago I had a black skullcap of new hair which actually looked rather trendy-chic in a severe sort of way.  I've lost count of the number of people who have told me that it looks great and I should keep it that way (which slightly makes me wonder if that's a reflection on the bird's-nest of hair I had Pre-Cancer).  Apparently I have a nice shaped head and can get away with super-short hair -  either that or I have super-nice friends who know how to make me feel better, which is, perhaps, more likely.

Anyway, chic or not, it didn't look like me when I looked in the mirror.  And it was still so short that I felt I was carrying a sign on my forehead: Just Finished Chemo!  So I might keep it short but it needs to do a fair bit of growing before I'll feel like Me again.  And there lies the problem.  My chic skullcap is gradually disappearing under new growth and my hair is springing into life with glorious vitality.  In all directions.  With curly bits and crinkly flourishes.  New hairs reach for the sun like shoots on a bean plant.  The unexpectedly beautiful Chic Black is softening into my more usual Mouse Brown -  except that I have lots of new Grey Highlights. And like a bush that explodes back into life in the spring time, I look decidedly shaggy.

So, for the first time, I have enough hair that people who don't know me probably think that I have simply chosen to have it this short.  That's great.  Except that it now looks a mess and I suspect that it's going to get a lot messier before it gets much better.  So there I am, back in the bathroom with my hairdryer, applying de-frizzers and trying to get it to lie flat.  Ah well, I guess this is a problem that I am happy to have and soon I hope I'll have enough to go for a celebratory and exceedingly indulgently expensive haircut. 

After nine months of savings on hair products and haircuts - I deserve it.