Kicking cancer's ass - day 360

To curl or not to curl, that is the question.

Most people who lose their hair from cancer treatments end up with (at least temporarily) chemo curls.  I'm not surprised that I did, because I've had crazy curls all my life!  My hair is getting to the point now, though, that it's too short to do much with but too long to leave it alone.

When my hair first started coming in, it was mostly straight.  I was able to get by with toweling it dry and all I needed was a comb.  It was GREAT!  (Guys are so lucky)  If I needed a little extra help, I had this handy little flat iron to smooth out the trouble spots.  I looked like this pretty much every day:

Now, I admit that I hate having short hair, and that look really goes beyond "short".  It's definitely a "my hair is growing back" look, not a short hairstyle.  A couple of months after that, my hair was longer, curlier but still manageable, and actually stopped looking like chemo-regrowth.

I still used the flat iron to smooth out the curls, but it worked.  Now that my hair is growing longer, and thicker, and curlier, I'm not sure what to do with it.  It takes forever to straighten the whole thing (and "straighten" really doesn't work with my hair, it just makes it wavy instead of curly), and then my head looks like a puffball.  If I leave it alone, I have tight little poodle curls all over my head (like a little old lady with an 80's perm) - except the sides, which stick straight out.  Talk about problem hair!

I know I could probably benefit from an actual hair cut....something to give it some shape or something.  However, if you've ever lost your hair and spent months being bald, the idea of cutting your hair any little bit is pretty horrifying.  I have to work hard to make it look presentable (to me), because this "in between" stage is really awful.  I'm back to using a blow dryer, flat iron, gel and hairspray.

Lately I've tried to embrace the curls while giving it a little help and style.  After all, the curls aren't going anywhere.  You would think, having had naturally curly hair all of my life, I would know what to do with it - but I haven't had hair this short since elementary school!  

I can still keep the front pretty tame, but this is my current look with curls everywhere else:

I have a long way to go to get my hair to what I want it to look like.  Layers and highlights and hair that actually touches my shoulders?  Seems like a pipe dream right now.  One day at a time....

At least my hair is finally longer than Hubby's!