Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Today was the day. The big Pantene Beautiful Lengths event. It is tied to the LPGA tour which is currently in our area.

All day I had friends at school ask, "Are you ready?" They also asked, "How will you style it?" I had to laugh on that one. There is no styling this hair of mine. It is fine. Have I mentioned HOW fine it is? It doesn't style. It just hangs. There is nothing I can do with it. Trust me, I have tried.

It was a busy day at school. We are finally getting some rain (via the tropical storm on the coast), so kids kept indoors makes for a busy a day. Then we had a faculty meeting after school. Around 4:40, I ran out the door to head to the Pantene event. (I am not an advertiser for Pantene, it is just easier to say that than "beautiful lengths".)

I will admit that I had second doubts on the way there. I was ready for my long hair to be gone. I may have sensory issues or something...cannot STAND the feel of my hair on my back like that. That and it doesn't do anything but hang anyway. At the same time, knowing there would be several people there watching it happen...well, I almost turned around. But I didn't. I thought of Mrs. B and Mrs. P and kept on driving.

When I got to the meeting area, I signed in then went to the "salon" to have my hair pulled back. Thankfully they had several stylists on hand to pull back the hair and measure it. And even more thankfully, eight inches wasn't as short on me as I thought it would be!

Finally, we were lined up to enter the "ballroom". My school group had a special seating area. We even had special capes to wear. Even though I wasn't excited to be up front and center, I was thankful to have some of my school family doing this with me. (Some also did it last week at a school assembly...I think we had 15 participate in all.)

I have a lot more "group" pictures but as you know, I try to be very careful about putting others on the blog without permission. I will say that our donors included some students, including a couple of girls who had NEVER cut their hair before, and a teacher and her twin sister who I believe have not had short hair since they were babies. It was very moving to see ALL of the participants from our area...there were over 100 donors I believe, including some men.
I thought it would be a formal affair, so I was very relieved to find out it was fairly casual. My family ended up sitting on the floor just a few feet away. That was a treat!

This picture just shows how long it had gotten. It was longer than I thought it was. I had to laugh. One of my teacher friends was sitting next to me. Her hair is so thick, she had like 6 ponytails to cut. I had two. And I am pretty sure one of hers was the same size as my 2. Darn fine hair.
Hair today...

Does it look like I am praying for a way out? I was probably trying not to cry. A video was shown highlighting the Beautiful Lengths program. The video also explained why our school was participating. That made me tear up. (Especially with Mrs. B standing behind me a little to the right with a bandana on her head that recently went bald from the chemo she just started...)

Gone tomorrow. In just a few minutes, the hair was snipped off and placed in a bag for safekeeping and donation. My assistant principal was the one who cut it for me.

Last but not least, the "after". I didn't style it or anything. And I have raccoon eyes because I was/am very tired. But you might get the gist...

I will say that thus far, it feels SO much lighter on my head. It ended up being fairly short but it will grow back. I told the stylist, "I am a teacher and a mom to four...I need something easy I can run out the door with." I think this will work. Or at least is a starting point!

Tonight child 2 informed me that she hopes she can do this event next year.

I hope she can too.

More later,

Reba