I'm in a situation that I thought I would never be in. For the past 17 years, I have been wearing a hair system. And to go with that, I have been in a loving relationship with my partner (male) for the past 13 years. When I first told Terry about wearing a hair system, he didn't seem to give a rat's *%# one way or the other. In fact, he said he love bald head men and has gently nagged me to do away with the "rug" thing in a humorous way. However, having the low esteem I have about myself, I never put much effort on my part to do away with this hair system and go back to my roots as my Black's friends would say.
On July 23, Terry was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. The doctors think they have caught this in the early stage ( 3 lymph nodes only) and thank God, not in his brain. They wasted no time in aggressively starting chemotherapy and radiation treatments. As a result of these treatments, Terry started losing his beautiful salt and pepper hair along with his mustache and goatee. I have never seen Terry without a mustache in these 13 years, much less being bald. However, even in all of this crap, Terry keep up his sense of humor and jokes about being an onion head.
I have been doing some soul searching these last weeks and have come to the conclusion that if Terry can handle this life alternating event in his life, I should be man enough to step up and do my part and show some solitary. I have already set a date on the calender for my coming out as a born again, bald headed man, for September 8. I realize this is going to be difficult, but at 56, I need to start thinking about others in my life, instead of my hair and how people are going to receive me. Besides, I'm not the one with cancer!
So, keep Terry in your thoughts and wish me luck as I go into this new (well, not really new for me) journey. Thanks so much for letting me vent as I don't have anyone to talk do about this. I know you guys know where I'm coming from. Note to self: Think of the money I will be saving not having to buy hair, glue,tape, hair products, etc.
Best Regards to you all,
John