Chapter 62: A fascinating day at the wig salon
I had fascinating appointment this week with a hair stylist and wig specialist, Carolyn Anderson. The Carolyn Anderson premier salon and wig studio, located in Deephaven, MN, is not only a great “normal” hair salon but also provides services for an incredible non-profit called Angel Hair.
My mother happened to hear about Angel Hair after meeting Carolyn for her own, non-wig related, haircut. The mission of Angel Hair is to provide 100% no-cost customized hair pieces to women suffering hair loss due to cancer treatments. After I requested a wig “prescription” from my radiation oncologist, Carolyn called me to set up my initial consultation.
I want to tell you a bit about this experience because it was both fascinating and educational. Additionally, if you are a cancer patient reading my blog or know someone who could benefit from this service, I cannot recommend Carolyn Anderson highly enough. http://www.carolynandersonsalon.com/
Last week, I met Carolyn for my initial consultation. At this appointment, I was led past a row of “normal” salon chairs into a private back room filled with wigs and wig-styling products. Although I personally have no issue showing my bald head to the rest of the salon, I could imagine this may be difficult for some people, so the privacy of the wig salon room was a nice touch.
In this back room, Carolyn had me try on a number of styles of wigs and look through color options. She looked at pictures of my natural hair and found a color and style that looked similar to this.
This week, my wig arrived in the mail. I met with Carolyn for my fitting and styling session. This salon experience was like nothing I have ever had before and it was absolutely fascinating. First, Carolyn gave me a hair trim, essentially a buzz cut, to get my scalp nice and smooth before a photo shoot I have later this week. Yippee! Patchy post-radiation fuzz isn’t really the most attractive photo shoot hair.
After my buzz, we went into the wig room and tried on my hair piece, a beautiful, realistically textured brunette wig with a gorgeous highlighted color that I would have easily spent $200/month in upkeep on with my natural hair. Luckily for me, this dye job will never grow out!
Carolyn then spent nearly an hour with me teaching me how to care for a wig, including the need for special shampoos, conditioners, hair sprays, and brushes. I had no idea all of these products existed. I ended up purchasing an entire cabinet full of wig-related hair products and my mom became the lucky beneficiary of my very expensive natural hair-related products. Goodbye, Aveda hair products (for now).
The entire experience was professional, educational, and personal. I left the salon feeling like a model and wondering why I would ever bother to style my natural hair ever again. Honestly, a wig is the way to go.
Apart from exciting wig styling appointments, this week has been filled with writing. After months and months of writing, I finished a draft of my book manuscript I am surprisingly proud of. It’s very challenging to read and re-read your own work. Every time I read through the manuscript, I liked it less and less, until suddenly, I changed the beginning and the end and I suddenly liked it again. I hope you all will, too.
As I wrote this book, I often thought to myself, “why bother?” Why spend hours, weeks, months writing a book that perhaps very few people will bother to read? I found myself frequently frustrated, second-guessing, and doubting my abilities to finish the damn thing.
As I typed the last chapter this morning, I flipped open one of my favorite Dalai Lama books and reflected on a fabulous quote.
I can’t promise my book will be wise, helpful, or even interesting to anyone but me, but at least I tried. I may just be one person, one new author entering a large pool of talented authors, but as the Dalai Lama says best, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
Fondly,
Courtney
© CB2020