When your hair starts falling out, you start realizing how underappreciated hair is and I’m not just talking about the hair on my head. All hair is underappreciated. But possibly most underappreciated are nose hairs, let me explain . . .

Nose hairs are heroes.

1. They stop most of the dust, pollen and other weird things that float in the air from getting all the way to your sinuses and causing an inordinate amount sneezing.
2. When you do have a runny nose due to your body attacking some allergen or a cold, nose hair helps slow the flow. Without them, your nose is a waterslide or maybe a leaky hose.
3. They protect the lining of your nose from becoming raw.

The hair on the top of my head seems to be the most watched hair so I guess I’ll take the time to update you all on that while I’m typing. I noticed on Friday that the hair on my head was starting to come out but truly it was only a little more hair than I usually lose in a day at that point. By Saturday evening, it was coming out more quickly and I started to feel like I was leaving hair behind on every surface I sat on. Saturday night, I wanted to wash my hair so I did. This is what the tub looked like when I was finished.

Despite the fact it looks like a small animal died in there, I still had a whole head full of hair. My hair has always been thick and I noticed a difference but I probably had as much hair as a normal person remaining on my head. Sunday I chose to wear my wig to church just so I wouldn’t shed all over the chairs in the Sunday School room and sanctuary. I could have easily gone without it and few people would have noticed a difference from the week before but I don’t like making messes in places where I’m not the one cleaning them up so I chose my wig. Hair continued to release throughout Sunday and Monday. This morning, it started to come out much more rapidly. I don’t look like Syd’s doll from Toy Story yet as it isn’t patchy but it is rather thin compared to what I am used to.

In general my biggest complaint about having my hair fall out is how much colder I feel. I’m sure it doesn’t help that our weather decided to turn back to winter again as soon as my hair started to heavily fall out. To try to keep warm, hats have been my friend. I’m glad to have several hat options at my disposal because somedays I want a cute one and other days I just want to be warm.

As time goes on, I may also get to add to my appreciation for eyebrows and eyelashes but for now those are still mostly in tact. Years ago when my mom was navigating her own cancer journey she never did get to appreciate leg hair as God saw it fit that she would have to continue to shave her legs despite losing all of the hair on her head, including her eyebrows and eyelashes. So who knows, maybe I’ll get to keep hair somewhere, only time will tell.