Chemo 14

Although I frequently say I am lucky and have been able to cope most of the time with my chemo side effects, I don’t think I have told you about the thing that is better because  of chemo - chemo curls.

I have very straight hair. My hairdresser says it reminds her of oriental hair - very thick and straight as a stick.  And I have hated it all my life.  When I was little my mom put my hair up in socks at night, And even worse, my older sister, Judy, had hair that curled with rags into lovely rings. Mine just stuck out at odd angles.  When I was old enough, my mom agreed to give me a perm a couple of times a year.  Perms in those days were very stinky - not only when the process was going on, but for weeks afterwards, made worse when you washed the hair.  And although there were periods when I braved the straight look, most of the last 79 years I have had curls courtesy of my hairdresser.  I left it 6 months between because perms aren’t very good for you and I didn’t cut it in between, because I knew that the last dregs of the curls were better than the alternative.

So when I last went to the hairdresser, for just a cut - I was scared to look when she was done. I had asked her to cut it really short  - thinking that would mean I didn’t have to get it cut again for a while.  So she cut most of it about 2 “ long.  And when I looked in the mirror after she had finished - most of my front and sides had curls.  And each time I wash it, the curls become nice and tight again.  

My husband had chemo for his cancer, and lost all his hair, but when it came back, it was curly.  And I had heard of chemo curls - but thought you had to lose your hair for it to work. 

He didn’t seem to mind being bald, but when his hair came back, he decided not to cut it ever again.  So this curly mixture got longer and longer.  It looked awful.  If he had had it seen to by a professional no doubt it would have enhanced his looks - but he had vowed to not have any cut at all. Finally it came to a crunch when he was asked to read a bible passage at his niece’s wedding.  We begged him to cut it, and with great reluctance he agreed.  The curls were gone, but he looked normal.  But shortly after that his cancer came back, and it did make me think of Sampson. 

Google tells me chemo curls are definitely a thing, and that they will go away as the chemo  slowly leaves the body at the end of treatment.  I don’t think I will wish for more cancer and more chemo for the sake of the curls, but I do enjoy having them now.