What's Bugging Me ... Another Hairy Dilemma

Greetings my bariatric surgery-interested friends:

It's now been about two-and-a-half years since I was "sleeved" and I haven't been sorry even one day since.

Dining at Oklahoma City's Bricktown River Walk, July 2014

That said, there have been a few bumps in the road and some I didn't expect. One of the biggest has been my hair debacle. I didn't mind when I went from a dark brunette to salt-and-pepper in my late 20s and 30s to mostly silver at about 45 and now about completely silver at 60. (Wow, did I say that? I'm 60. How did that happen?) That was gradual and gave me plenty of time to get used to it.

I expected to lose some hair after my sleeve after reading many of the bariatric message boards after my surgery, especially Bariatric Pal.
But what I didn't figure on was what came in after that.

Curls. I mean serious curls. And it just keeps getting curlier.

Note the ringlets underneath. Anaheim, Calif., Sept. '13

To be fair, all that curliness seemed to accelerate after I had surgery for a thrombosed hemorroid Aug. 1, 2013. You don't want one of those. Think red hot poker to sit on for a week or so and the pain drugs weren't all that effective. But that's another post. Just don't let yourself get constipated and I'll leave it at that.

Back to the hair.

A seriously bad hair day. In Taiwan at Yingge Pottery Street, Nov. '13

I noticed little baby hairs growing back in, but when I visited beautiful Taiwan late last October/early November, it seemed like all of a sudden I had this combination of stringy frizz and ringlets under it because of the constant drizzly rain from the approaching outer bands of the huge typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines on Nov 8, 2013.

I was among a group of 22 international journalists from 17 countries and between all the pictures taken by our hosts, the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and all the other journos, my bad hair days were well-recorded.

I'm starting a blog series on that trip "Taiwan Tales," just FYI. If you're interested, you can find it at ToAndFrowe.

When I returned home to Okla./Texas, the first thing I did was schedule a haircut to manage this mess. Part of my hair was still sorta straight and then there were those darn ringlets. And it kept growing in a weird way, not all curly, not all straight. My terrific stylist Amanda at Three Graces Salon in Oklahoma City cut it again and gave it some more shape and layering.

Bloggin' on the back porch. June 5, 2014

When nature messes with your hair, it kind of messes with your self-image too. I've interviewed breast cancer survivors over the years, and after losing their hair from chemo, often it grew back another color and curly. This must be sort of similar, although 100 percent of those women were just happy to be a survivor and most didn't care about what color or texture their hair is now. In fact, they embraced it. I'm trying.

The good news is that I'm learning to like it, although still begrudgingly because I'd always identified with having straight hair (except when it rained.) And I just wash my current mop and comb it and let it dry naturally. So easy. And I can make it even curlier by scrunching it and blow drying it with a diffuser. Who needs that though?

The bad news? I confess that I miss my former straight hair terribly though. Too bad. Move on.

I think it makes me look a bit older, but heck, I am getting older (if I'm lucky.) And there are a few other things that are "bugging me," that I'll be blogging about soon to help me tackle them. Gotta have a sense of humor about all of it.

Let me know if you've had anything similar and how you handled it. Thanks in advance.

Onward,
Carol