Yesterday while walking in the woods far from prying eyes, I took off my hat and let the wind whip through my hair--er, stubble. It felt great.
For six weeks now I've been covering my bald head with a hat or scarf pretty much all the time--on cold nights I even wear a soft cap to bed. Today I'm wearing a lovely scarf an old friend brought back from Turkey years ago; yesterday I wore a silk scarf a colleague recently brought back from China, and last week I wore a fall-color scarf another old friend brought back from Japan two decades ago. The world comes together to cover my head.
The campus seems comfortable with my colorful scarves, but I still get a few funny looks when I'm out in the community. On Monday I made the mistake of walking into Wal-Mart while crowned with a brilliant purple scarf. You know you're in trouble when Wal-Mart shoppers treat you like a sideshow freak.
At the cancer center last week I saw a beautiful bald woman, tall and lean as a runway model and elegant too, and I admired her ability to boldly walk around without a hair on her head, but I'm just not comfortable exposing my baldness to the world. It feels naked and it looks--well, with my short stubble next to my husband's tight curls, we could easily be mistaken for Velcro.
But yesterday I sweated pretty hard walking halfway up the big horrible hill and then I wanted to cool down a bit, so I doffed my cap. No one was there to see except Hopeful, and she didn't flinch. The sun and warm wind felt refreshing, and my head felt free.
But that doesn't mean I'll be exposing my stubble to the world anytime soon. It's one thing to feel free and naked while walking in the woods and another thing entirely in Wal-Mart. I wouldn't want to risk getting arrested for indecent exposure!
3 comments:
What would Wally Whitman say, I wonder?
Velcro! Brilliant!
That reminds me...years ago when I was a lowly journalist, I wrote a column about a doll whose head was equipped with Velcro so various wigs could be attached. I suggested at the time that a little genetic manipulation could cause human beings to sprout Velcro, allowing for the easy exchange of hairstyles. Little did I know at the time that I would one day become a Velcro-head...
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