What’s That in Your Foot?

Before I talk about my hair woes, I wanted to put a picture up I created of me and Eric. I am a HUGE True Blood fan, and I’m really mad that HBO has been keeping me in suspense since I missed the last three episodes of the second season! It feels like its taking forever for them to just get through that first season of reruns. Anyway, Eric is one of my favorite characters from the show and I am posting this picture for my own absolute enjoyment. LOL

OK, Over the last month my hair loss has seemed to go into remission again. I say that with hesitation because it typically takes about six months to know for sure a person with alopecia is in remission. After keeping the swamp cooler off for three months, my circled patches started to grow back in and my hair started to fill out. Its coming in quite nicely again, with very little permanent loss. After shaving it off about three months ago, I had it in my mind to never try and grow my hair out again. It will never look or feel the same as it used to and it would be necessary for me to get some sort of hair system to make my hair look semi normal. I’m not into hair systems or toppers, and I only wanted to get a wig for days that I felt like mixing it up a bit. So why am I growing it back this time around? Well, about a month ago my scalp started hurting very bad. As I’d bic it, it felt like the razor was dulling with each stroke against the scalp. By the time I’d be done shaving it, my head felt like it was on fire and I’d end up nicking my scalp pretty bad. I don’t need any new interesting designs on my beautiful bald head due to razor scars! So I laid off the razor for awhile. As November came and went, it perplexed me as to why my razor would dull so bad and my head hurt like a million needles were being pierced through it.

One of the lovely side affects for some individuals living with Alopecia Areata (in its many forms) is the possibility of growing what looks like translucent hairs. To the ‘lucky’ people that have to deal with this strange phenomenon it is almost surreal to view. Guess who has these hairs growing in? Yup, yours truly. It isn’t a pleasant experience for me to feel them coming through my scalp, nor is it any comfort to feel them on my head. You see, they are like hard plastic strands of see-through hair. Ever hear of see-through hair? They shimmer when light is cast on them…they feel like freshly laid astro turf! There is nothing soft or pleasing, feeling hair you can’t even see. And these rogue hairs are dangerous too! I’d like to share an unbelievably true story that takes place in my bedroom just a few short weeks ago:

Picture this…it’s nightfall and all is well in our house. I settle into bed and Dom comes in the room and is walking around barefoot. All of the sudden, he starts to limp. “Ouch!” He exclaims as he makes his way over to the light so that he may better view the “thing” that has pierced his foot. He looks but doesn’t see anything. Then he says to me “Can you look to see what’s stuck in the bottom of my foot? I think there’s glass in there!” He limps over to me and puts his foot up on my lap. I look and look, and at first I didn’t see anything. I moved his foot closer to the light and I said “Yes! You do have something in your foot.” It was glass like in appearance but thin. I reached to pull it out, and I realized that it was one of those damn rogue translucent hairs! Oh-My-God! It went half way into his foot. I pulled it out and said “Its one of my HAIRS!” He said “No!” and I gave it to him so he could see for himself. My translucent hair is like shards of glass piercing my lover’s foot. How bizarre is that? Now imagine if my hair can do that to the tough underside of a man’s foot, what is it doing to my scalp?

At that point I realized why the blade was dulling on my razor so quickly too. You try shaving something that feels like thick hard plastic strands and see how far you get! The thickness of these hairs is also not the same as my regular hair…its thicker! I’ll be laying off the razor for a while until I don’t have any more pain, but I’m going to have to find either a very sharp industrial blade, or let it grow. I don’t even know how well an electric shaver would work at this point. I love being completely bald, but I can’t risk at this point damaging the skin on my scalp either.

The other issue I have with my hair now is that with these translucent hairs coming in, it looks like I have less hair than I really do. I can’t use conventional hair dyes because they trigger my autoimmune response and they don’t grab the white hair (another lovely part of alopecia) very well. I’ll have to try a henna dye in a dark brown. I’m unsure whether the white hair and the translucent hair would hold color with henna though. I know it would work for my gray hair (I have plenty of those!). I guess all I can do is try huh?

Bald Beauty of the Day

I’m Addicted to True Blood!

What the hell is it about True Blood that I love so much? I remember the first time I saw this HBO show, and for some reason I just couldn’t turn it off. It’s provocative, I’ll give you that, but I think there’s more to this show than meets the eye.

My husband and I watched the first episode and although we both thought it was a little corney, it sucked us in and now we are hooked on it. I have never been a big vampire fan and yet here I am drawn every Sunday night to a new episode, wondering what the heck is gonna happen next! Maybe I’ve been “glamored.” For those of you who have never seen the show, in the True Blood world, to be “glamored” is to be hypnotized by a vampire.

I think I’m drawn to the social undertones of the series since it touches on so many common themes in our world today. Discrimination, cultural barriers, misconceptions and stereotypes seem to be a common thread weaved throughout this fictitious world, and yet there are so many parallels to those very things in our world.

True Blood creates an interesting story line…the following quote is from http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/

“Thanks to a Japanese scientist’s invention of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendarymonsters to fellow citizens overnight. And while humans have been safely removed from the menu, many remain apprehensive about these creatures “coming out of the coffin.” Religious leaders and government officials around the world have chosen their sides, but in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the jury is still out.

Local waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), however, knows how it feels to be an outcast. “Cursed” with the ability to listen in on people’s thoughts, she’s also open-minded about the integration of vampires — particularly when it comes to Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a handsome 173-year-old living up the road. But as Sookie is drawn into a series of mysteries surrounding Bill’s arrival in Bon Temps, that tolerance will be put to the test.

A sexy, scary new drama from ‘Six Feet Under’ creator Alan Ball, ‘True Blood’ delves into the meticulously-crafted world of novelist Charlaine Harris. Described by the Emmy®-winning Ball as “popcorn for smart people” and featuring a colorful cast of local misfits, ‘True Blood’ promises an intense ride.” 

Another interesting spin that I found to be very thought provoking was how in this strange world where vampires and humans are supposed to co-exist, the tables seem to turn…it turns out that humans can actually become addicted to vampire blood. LOL How strange is that? I found that to be the most creative thing so far. In the True Blood world, tasting even a drop of vampire blood is like taking a psychotropic drug mixed with the drug Ecstasy. It becomes so addictive that humans would hunt and drain a vampire’s blood to get their “fix”, ultimately killing the vampire.

In the final analysis, I can’t say that I am a fan of vampires, BUT, I have become a fan of Alan Ball and Charlaine Harris for taking me on a wild ride and sparking up a new creative spin on an age old story. I have really enjoyed watching the whole series and look forward to seeing the season finale this Sunday night.

I wonder what next season’s series will be like?