The Lessons of Baldness

I'm bald. Full on, no hair left, shiny head bald.

And as it turns out, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Of course I wish I weren't. Mostly because of why I am. But the actual bald part--reason not withstanding--is kind of an interesting learning experience. It's just hair.

I don't look half bad bald. My head is pretty symmetrical--Dave says I look great with no hair! My forehead, interestingly, looks way smaller now that I'm bald. I always thought I just had this huge forehead, and I would try to hide it with bangs and various haircuts. Not so bad when I have no hair at all.

I look good in scarves. In fact, today I went out and bought myself a few pair of dangly, bohemian-looking earrings (and I have not worn earrings of any kind in years--surprised I still have holes in my lobes), and when paired with a nice flowered black scarf I bought in Paris four years ago--I look downright chic! Seriously--this is a look I would do even if I had hair it's that good!

I have a couple of new little hats that look just adorable. You can totally tell I'm bald even when I have them on, but they still look really cute, and I would definitely leave the house wearing one and not think a thing about it.

I've gotten GREAT at doing my eyebrows. That's important right now, in my estimation, because all the sudden focus is on my face being framed by the hat/scarf, and for karmic reasons beyond my understanding (cause I think I'm actually a pretty good person) about six months before this whole fiasco started my eyebrows started getting all patchy. So patchy eyebrows, no hair... means you learn to make your eyebrows look good. Which I have. Thanks to my lovely daughter, who taught me this handy little trick: When you put your moisturizer on, don't forget to put it on your eyebrow area, and then apply your eyebrow powder to that--your entire eyebrow area is your canvas, the powder sticks great and it stays all day! Thanks Beebs :)

I've learned that I can pull of a hipster beanie. Or at least my family says I can pull off a hipster beanie. I'm inclined to believe them.

I've found that if you're bald and wearing a scarf or a beanie and you get warm, you can simply take off the scarf or the beanie and solve the problem. Not so much the same when you have hair. I'm not saying the former is preferable to the latter. I wish I had hair. But since I don't, it's nice to find some positive in the situation.

So all in all, being bald has so far helped me learn how to do eyebrow makeup, taught me I can accessorize to complement a look, helped me learn that I actually have more than one look, and maybe the most important thing it's taught me--it's just hair.

It's still me. My family looks at me exactly the same as they always have. They don't see bald. They see me. And they think I'm beautiful.