“Much Ado About Nothing”

 I realize the Shakespeare connection is a stretch here, but somehow it works for me…

“Much ado” about what you might ask?

I would never call hair loss “nothing.” But this time my “much ado” is not about the loss of my hair or anyone else’s either for that matter. This time my “much ado” is about something else hair related, but we’ll get to that…

It seems people are always up for “hair talk.”  

We all know how important our hair is to us, even if we don’t like to admit it, even if we don’t have cancer, even if we don’t have hair.

And of course, hair loss is a serious subject, but having said that, this is not intended to be a serious post about hair or hair loss. In fact, it’s meant to be the opposite.

In cancer land (for those who’ve had chemo anyway), hair loss is a huge deal for obvious reasons.

However, I’ve discovered that hair loss is a sensitive topic even for those with cancer who have NOT lost their hair. Really, how can this be you might ask?

If you have cancer and still have your hair, you can’t really be all that sick, right?

Don’t you have to “look sick” to really be sick?

Wrong.

See what I mean?

And then there are those experiencing hair loss or baldness as a result of alopecia, aging or other conditions. I can’t even imagine how irritating it must be for them when others assume they must have cancer or when people say things to them like, “Oh, it’s only hair, it will grow back.”

Appearances can be deceiving. Indeed.

But back to the hair…or rather our obsession with hair…

Women are always fixing their hair. Men, too, I dare say.

When I visited my grandma while I was growing up, I used to watch her spend, what seemed to me anyway, hours in front of her mirror getting ready each morning. I often wondered, getting ready for what? To her it didn’t seem to matter what was planned for the day, she always spent the same amount of time in front of her oval mirror each and every morning “fixing her hair.”

On top of their own “fixing,” my grandmother and my mom made weekly visits to their local “beauty shops” to have their hair “fixed.” Getting their “hair fixed” was an event everything else in their week was scheduled around, or so it seemed to me. The funny thing was, when they returned home, they’d be back at the mirror for a few minutes anyway, usually somewhat dissatisfied, tending and “fixing” a little bit more.

Was this another example of “much ado about nothing?” Maybe. Maybe not. Who am I to say?

During one of my recent lying awake moments during the middle of the night (of which I still have many), I was unexpectedly surprised by a slight annoyance. I was being kept awake by something blowing in the breeze made by the fan I always have going.

(I should probably explain that I sleep every single night with a fan blowing on high speed; yes even during the month of January.  I started using this “white noise” sleeping aid a few years ago to cool me off during those unwelcome hot flashes and I soon discovered the added bonus – the humming drowns out hubby’s snoring!)

Anyway, on this particular night what I discovered was this:

My hair was blowing in the breeze! So much so, it was keeping me awake!

It’s been a long time since my hair was blowing in the breeze!

So yes, this post is completely and totally “much ado about nothing.” In the big scheme of things, my hair blowing or not blowing in the breeze isn’t much to get excited about.

But then again, maybe it is?

What’s next, a haircut??

Are you experiencing (or have you ever experienced) hair loss due to any reason?

Is there any “hair talk” you’d like to share?

Have you read Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing?”