"It's gonna ITCH!"

15 YEARS AGO, as this blog has made abundantly clear, I went through chemotherapy. And chemo has side-effects.

So, did I experience one of the more well-known and visible effects – hair loss? Sorta.

This was obviously a concern when we first started treatment. Not that it would have stopped us from proceeding, it was more of a question of how much I would lose, for how long and if and how it would grow back.

And I actually had quite a bit to lose. The hairline at my forehead had already started to recede (a genetic gift) but I had stopped getting haircuts for a couple of years and had a longish ponytail and a full beard.

Still, I was told, I was getting the half-and-half chemo of two different compounds. One was known to cause hair loss, the other wasn’t. Plus body chemistry and individual genetics come into play, so it was impossible to predict how or if I’d lose hair.

As it turned out, the chemicals wrecking my veins and killing the malignancy had an odd sense of humor. I got to keep the hair on my head – I’d be losing that naturally in the years to come – as well as the beard. Everything from the neck down, however, was gone.

Slick arms and legs are OK, and loss of chest hair made that area easier to mark when I started radiation treatments. But I didn’t really feel I needed a chemical bikini wax.

The fact that I was losing hair “down there” was a source of endless amusement for my female friends. Not that anyone but Gwen saw the results. It was more a schadenfreude on the part of those who felt compelled to trim or shave or wax or otherwise maintain their “area.” They knew I would learn what they had found when they had allowed hair to grow back.

“It’s gonna ITCH,” they would tease.

And they were right.

TODAY the hair on my head is kept very short, which helps make the thinning less noticeable. The beard has been reduced to a trimmed goatee. But otherwise, I’m fairly hairy. On my arms, legs, chest, nether regions – could do without it spreading to my back, but what can I do?

Having gone through the itchy days, I would not ask anyone to remove body hair unless they truly wanted to.

And I don’t mind that I became a source of amusement for my friends. Especially since I may have just done so again.