I have a bit of a ‘thing’ around the number three.  Some might call it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  They might be right.  I have to ‘check’ things three times.  The windows, the front door, the car doors (the door handles are on the verge of falling off the car as I check them three times, but then I have to check the car three times as a whole, so I wrench each one up nine times every time I leave the car…)

Anyway, you get the idea.  I decided to turn it on its head and turn it into a positive though, when I realised something on the 3^rd of this month.  It had been three months and three days since I’d shaved my head and my gorgeous nephew, Little Pea was born.  I took it as a sign.  And I’ve not shaved my head since.  I’ve also not worn Bradley. And it has now been three months, 18 days since I pulled ANY hair out!

Now, when I developed this plan I thought about the head shaving, the wig wearing and the hope that one day I’d have a real hair style again.  What I didn’t think about was the in between phase.  I currently look like a cross between a tennis ball and someone who had had a lump of Astroturf pasted onto their head (Mum informed me that’s not the case – ‘your hair isn’t green!’ – good, well I’m glad that is the one difference that springs to mind).  My hair has grown back really dark – apart from more than a sprinkling of grey – , so you can’t miss the dodgy-ness of it.  I also have two small bald patches that I think may stay with me forever and a dark stripe across one side.  I look stunning! (That’s sarcasm, in case it doesn’t translate in writing.)

roughly what I currently look like…

It got worse though.  Last weekend I thought I would make myself a hat as all my current ones are woolly, and it’s getting a bit warm for them.  So I sat outside all Sunday, making the most of the occasional sunny moments.  Oh, the irony of sitting outside making a hat that I really should have been wearing…because, of course, I burned my scalp.  So then I had peculiar hair poking from a shiny red beacon.

By Monday, even if I had wanted to wear Bradley, I couldn’t – I could only just put the hat on, my head was so tender.  I trotted off to work in my newly created hat and sat in my corner with my head down so nobody could catch my eye and ask why I was wearing a hat indoors.  Then in the afternoon a lady on my floor who I don’t know very well walked past and I looked up (stupid, stupid me).  ‘Are you cold?’ she asked.  I must have looked confused.  ‘You’re wearing a hat’ she informed me.  I’d not practiced what to do in this situation.  So I did the trich-in-ten-seconds version of the story and waited for her to walk off, embarrassed.  She didn’t – she asked me to take off my hat so she could see what it looked like.  She told me I looked better without it and I should leave it off, so I took a deep breath and did just that.  I admit I got a few odd looks, and a few people stopped their conversations when they saw me.  When I went to the kitchen though, two lovely girls who know the story cheered as I walked in.  That made my day :o)

My car went bang on the way home and I’ve been stranded in Bumpkinsville while it gets some TLC so I’ve been into the office since.  Next Monday though, I’ll try again.  I might even make it to the toilets with a naked head (this involves waking from one side of the office to the other past a hundred or so people).  And if I chicken out, it’s ok because I made a second hat.  And I’ll definitely be wearing it if the sun comes out again. :o)