It Will Grow Back

I knew I was going to lose my hair.  I was cautioned that after the second treatment is when the significant hair loss begins, so I was not surprised.  Traumatized?  Absolutely.  But like the good little Girl Scout I was as a child, I am prepared with a collection of adorable head scarves and a wig.  Once it started coming out in handfuls I handed my mother a pair of scissors and said one word:  “Chop.”  She obliged, I cried, and ten seconds later it was over. 

Now that I looked like my one-year-old nephew cut my hair, the next step was for the full on buzz cut.  I called up my hair stylist, Anthony, and asked him if he would do the honors.  He said, “It’s a date!”  I reminded him that I was bringing my brothers to chaperone our “date,” which thrilled him because he cuts their hair regularly as well and finds them almost as hilarious as I do. 

My older brothers are quite a sight to look at.  They are nearly 6’6”, built like linebackers, and are identical twins.  I happen to think they are the two funniest people in the world.  I knew shaving my head was going to be upsetting, but if anyone could make me laugh during this experience, it would be Frankie and Chris. 

As we were escorted to the private room in the back where the buzzing took place (“Private room…classy,” Chris remarked), I could feel the tears in my eyes and knew I was about to lose it.  But as I sat down, Frankie commented on all the inappropriate things that probably go on in this private room, which led Anthony into a boss-bashing tirade, and the comedy routine ensued!  They talked about how the Yankees were in the midst of embarrassing themselves on their opening day at the new Yankee stadium, told dirty jokes about each other and Anthony’s boss, and by the end of the shaving session Frankie and Chris were serenading me with a hilarious rendition of Nothing Compares to You, by controversial female bald singer Sinead O’Conner.  After remarking that my forehead no longer looks like a "fivehead" (they've teased me since birth about my big forehead!), I knew I would have the courage to swing my chair around and face the mirror. 

I could not have done this without my brothers there.  Thanks to them I laughed through the whole ordeal and when I finally looked in the mirror, I saw their reflections looking right at me with goofy grins on their faces as they said simultaneously, “Yeeeeeeeeeeep.”  How could I not laugh at that moment?