20.5

I woke up one morning and my hair was still holding strong, the next morning was a whole different story.

It was early Wednesday morning and I was up doing my usual thing in the living room. Mom finally came out from down the hall and could tell, or sense, or mothers intuition, that something wasnt right, so she asked. I didnt speak, I just ran my hand through , at that time, my thick, flowing 7 inch locks of hair and with open fingers out came enough hair to shock her. I had already done this a few times by now, and was ready for it, she wasnt. It was enough hair to fill the palm of your hand and not too noticeable up top but littered the pillow I had slept on the night before and was a precursor of things to come. I was hoping that my hair would just thin out a bit and not go completely bald, but we all knew that wasnt going to happen. But as far as things are going, to feel relatively ok, and to deal with losing your hair, something we have known about for a while, I was having a good day. The next few days werent anything different, hair was still falling out but I was feeling better. So we took the good with the bad and tried to make the best of it. Saturday came and I jumped in the shower. I had been showering and loosing little bits of hair, similar to what Claire leaves behind in the shower on a weekly basis, so I wasnt too concerned. This girl leaves A LOT of hair, everywhere, and she has nice hair, so maybe i'll be ok too.

When I tell people about the traumatic experience of losing my hair THIS is what im talking about.

I got my hair wet and went to wipe a single piece from my face. What I ended up with was what must have been a good portion of the right side of my scalp. This was the end. I combed whatever would fall out in the shower and hurried out of there. It was like being caught in a cobweb.. of your own hair, i just couldnt get it off. It was everywhere. I went back out and told the girls that today was the day, it had to go. So I texted a few of my buddies to see who was available. If I'm being forced to do this, why not make this a team event and let them shave some of it off, it'll be fun. But realistically, it made it easier if they did it, because I dont think I can do it myself. At this point its about 10am on a Saturday and by 2pm everyone was here. It took some rationalizing for me, and some Jameson for others, but by 4 o clock, we had 3 neatly shaven heads and Claire, Garrett and Thurston still pretty as ever. Today was the day, today was the day my hair was falling out at an alarming rate, today was the day that I'm forced to look like, for the first time, a cancer patient. Today was also the day that my best friends rallied around me and helped their buddy though a very tough time. I really do have the best friends in the world.