Becoming Barbarella

As I don’t have a proper wig yet, Barbarella is on stand-by.

Barbarella is a massive long blond wig that I wore to a friend’s fancy dress party last year. I could never have imagined that just over six months later I might have to wear it for real.

The fake hair came with a 60’s style zip-up dress. The outfit was supposed to transform me into Barbarella as in the science fiction flick.

It didn’t quite work out like that. (That’s why this photo from the party is just a head shot!)

Incredibly though I still have hair.

I thought I’d be bald by now. The chemo should have seen to that a couple of weeks ago. Instead as I write this I have almost a full head of really greasy hair.

I’m still following the advice of the hospital’s wig man. To try not to wash it very often, to preserve what’s still there. I can’t even put it up or do anything that would encourage it to fall out. That includes using dry shampoo.

Please don’t tell me that after a while it starts to clean itself. If I was backpacking around Thailand then I wouldn’t mind trying out that theory. Going through treatment for cancer with skanky hair is a whole different matter. I can safely say that after more than a week, my hair does not self-clean.

It just continues to fall out in great big handfuls especially on the rare occasions that it is washed.

My hair is thinning but I must have so much of the stuff normally that you can’t really tell. Well apart from a bald patch that I can cleverly disguise with a comb-over.

I reckon that it’s just a matter of time before I have more bald patch than comb-over. When that happens I’ll get it all shaved off. I have to say I’m feeling a lot more relaxed now as I wait for that moment.

I won’t get my NHS wig for at least another week and I don’t want to buy any wigs until all my hair is gone. So if I do have to become Barbarella anytime soon then I’ll be happy to be blond but I certainly won’t be wearing that silver dress again!