It was time, and to give you an idea of why, we filmed this quick into before we cut it:

Unfortunately, due to video compression, you may not be able to clearly see the handfuls of hair (switching to 480p helps). But trust me, they were there, and they were kind of gross. If you have a long-haired pet and a furminator, then you get the idea.

I figured that my hair was going to start falling out about now, but I thought that it would be in response to my second chemo treatment. Imagine my surprise then when it started falling out in a big way this weekend. We had noticed that it was certainly thinning in places, but when I got out of the shower on Thursday and toweled off my head the towel was FULL of hair in a pretty gross way. It was happening.

As the weekend progressed we started finding more of it around the house and every morning my pillow is increasingly covered with hair. Even after a few short days of hair-loss I was starting to notice some real bald spots. So, as you can see from the video, since I can’t touch my head without pulling out a chunk of hair (a pretty nasty feeling I assure you) we made the decision to cut it pretty much all the way off.

Armed with some clippers that I picked up at Costco, Stine made quick work of my hair… but not before we had some fun with it.

Before. Note the included 'cape' which I wore even though it really didn't do anything to help keep the hair off of my clothes

Smoldering Good Looks

Punk?

I should have just left it like that

'Every Who down in Whoville loved Christmas alot ...'

And finally, after a few more passes with the clippers:

New Recruit? ... or Cancer Patient

Lots of space between the hairs up here... I do have a bit of a widow's peak, but it's certainly been exaggerated lately by the hairloss

Fallen soldiers

We decided to start by just cutting it real short. This is primarily just to keep it so that I no longer feel like a cat in spring as I walk around leaving my long hair all over the furniture, but if it continues to fall out leaving large bald patches (which there are certainly already a few) then we’ll go back and essentially shave the rest off to create a more uniform look. It may just continue to fall out in only certain areas, or it might fall out everywhere. Only time will tell. And as I keep learning there are always surprises.

I really thought that it would take a few treatments before it got the point that it would pull out this easily though, but I guess it’s just a testament to the power of these chemo drugs. It’s crazy to think that it’s been 3 weeks since my FIRST and only treatment at this point and I am still experiencing new side effects. Should definitely be interesting to watch my body react to these treatments as I start having them every two weeks like originally planned.

Speaking of which, my blood test yesterday came back and my white blood cell count is at 3.8, just 0.2 away from low end of a normal person, but high enough that we’re headed back to bootcamp chemo today. 1B, here we come! We’ll see you on the flip side!