Hatless?

I left the house without a hat yesterday. People, not just women, can be obsessed with their hair. I can remember being obsessed with my hair. Whatever the style was when I was young, I could never seem to get it right, at least, not as right as all those so-much-cuter-than-me girls. I can remember when I went out on dates, and that requires a very long memory, maybe about 48 years ago; if the date (Joe) left the car for a minute (I don’t know, to get hamburgers or something), I would quickly check the rear view mirror and put any stray hairs back in place. The rear view mirror? Yep. Back in those days, the two front seats were not separated by a console; and seatbelts weren’t around, so the passenger might possibly be sitting in the middle of the front seat, you know, closer to the driver. To check your hair or make-up or whatever, you would use the rear view mirror (there were no mirrors underneath the visors). Yikes, what a history lesson here. Well, surely if you weren’t a teenager some 40 years ago, you’ve at least seen a movie ala Grease http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJcHTblkljM or American Graffiti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h32Kdrh0Z48, or Dirty Dancing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VSuCtebBT0 or reruns of Happy Days www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLt7clQbBzo. If not, you have no idea what you’re missing. Even way back then, I worried about my hair. I’ve permed my hair, colored my hair, and tried many different styles. Before I lost my hair to chemo, it was quite stylish for a person in my age bracket. I had three different colors: a base color and blonde and red highlights. I always kept some sort-of bangs to help cover my high forehead, but the rest of the hair on top was spiky and so was the back. I had my hair done every 6-8 weeks. Since last July, I may have saved money on shampoo, conditioner, color, mousse, gel, and styling. However, that was all offset by wigs, wig shampoo, wig conditioner, wig molding putty, scarves (never worn), and a vast array of hats. I have a hat to match pretty much any color outfit. I have a silver baseball cap, a gold baseball cap. Actually, most of my hats have some type of glitter or shiny something on them. I figured if I had to wear hats, they might as well make a statement. I could never get the scarf thing down. I didn’t really try very hard. Since I can’t put together something that comes out of a cereal box, I didn’t think swirls and ties and knots would work for me. Am I ready to go hatless? Yesterday, I only went to Wal-Mart. That was easy. Last week after the bachelorette festivities, sitting at home with no hat on, Teresa and Susan both said I don’t need to wear hats anymore. I asked if they had agreed to gang up on me, and they denied it. They told me to just go without the hat and cop an attitude, along the lines of I have short hair, and I can get away with it! O.K., Laura’s probably putting me over. On Friday, she gave me a gift bag with the smallest hairclips ever invented and a jar of Bed Head Manipulator. That’s pretty amazing, since that blue stuff is exactly what I used on my previously spiky hair. She couldn’t have known that. She also gave me a card that said, “Go for it!” So, my damn hair is white, short, longer and thicker in the back, and not enough on the top. I am sick of hats already, and they’re starting to get hot. I experimented yesterday, and I’ll play around with it some more today. Tomorrow morning I’ll decide if I can ditch the hats, cop an attitude, and go to school.