Elephant Head

     I have an elephant head.  Not that I have an actual elephant head in hand.  Or in my living room.  Meaning that my head resembles the head of an elephant.
     How, you say?  The massive skull? The wrinkly gray skin?  Elegant tusks?  What is it that makes my noggin so elephant like?
     It's this:

I-can't-stand-it-that-is-so-adorable!

     Those little wonky hairs sprouting straight up on top of the elephant's head.  Granted, the elephant has longer wonky hairs.  Much longer.  And more of them.  Many more of them.  And I don't have a random piece of vegetation stuck up there like the pictured pachyderm does.  Okay, so maybe my head doesn't look so much like an elephant's after all.  But sprouting among the smooth baldness and the rough stubble across my head are these little-bit-longer wispy hairs, isolated from each other--they didn't get the memo from the Red Devil to stop growing entirely, but they also can't get it together to form a tribe so that they can provide any covering for any part of my scalp. They look pretty silly...but a bit endearing, in their own way, I think.  They look...constantly surprised!  
     I do forget I am without hair sometimes.  I'll go to scratch my head and be surprised when my fingers instantly touch my skin.  Or I'll read some tip about conditioning curly hair and think, "I'm going to do that today when I shower...oh...no I'm not."  I've even mentally planned how I'm going to "do" my hair for the day before I remember that I don't have any hair to do anymore.
     My daily morning hairless routine is easy.  Take off my red fleece beanie--I sleep in it every night because my head is so very cold sticking outside the blankets.  I bend over the sink and rub my head with both hands to get rid of the lingering red fuzzy fleece bits that are clinging to my elephant hairs (I've even used a lint roller--no joke).  And while the red fuzz rains down, so do little pepper flakes of hair stubble.  Just a sprinkling each morning.  And then I decide what hat I'm wearing--there are indoor hats and outdoor hats to be selected.   I have only to coordinate my hat with my outfit/activity--that's it.  No shampooing/ conditioning/ detangling/ ponytail/ hairclip/ jawclip/ headband/braid/bun nothin'.  It doesn't get any easier than that.
     And to be honest, I have always had a hat obsession that I have never been able to indulge because of my love of having long hair.  If I had long straight hair, I could have rocked many hat styles--but with curly hair, putting almost any hat on it gives you that big bushy POOF of hair sticking out from the bottom and it ruins your hat look.  Like football players who have all the hair sticking out of the bottom of their helmet (am I the only one who thinks that looks weird?) and flopping around.
     Anyone who knows my taste in clothing knows that I like a little whimsy and I like a little vintage and I like a little swag on occasion.  Hats allow an indulgence on all those fronts! 
     
     My fedora with the woven gold metallic threads:

From my sis--she always finds the best things!

     My cat hat:

You know you want one!  Check ModCloth.com

     My retro 1920s-style  felted hat:

Etsy.com search for LidiaArtThings

     And that's not even the half of it!  I'm at the point where I have to accept that I have enough hats now.  That or I have to really ramp up my social life--not all my hats really lend themselves to hanging around the house in sweatpants!  
     It's remarkable how perspective changes:  my hubs and son said that if I were to walk in the room with my pre-chemo full head of hair, I would look weird to them now.  They are so used to me without hair.  And I am used to me, too.