Stacy vs. The Wig – Round #2

Next Thursday I will have my photograph made.  It’s not something I voluntarily arranged for; instead, it’s one of those necessities.  Oh how I have fretted and worried over this.  What to do, what to wear?  A hat or a scarf or do I take another try at a wig?  Oh my goodness this is almost more than I can stand!  

While wearing hats has been somewhat of my cancer trademark, this photo will be published and I have not been able to convince myself that wearing a straw hat will make me look professional and somewhat normal.  I’m almost certain that I resorted to hats after the terrible debacle at the last wig store I visited.  I mean getting kicked out of a wig store was a rather traumatic experience.  I think my friend Mary Ruth even took tranquilizers for a few days after this dreadful encounter.  And I for sure have suffered from a wig phobia.  

With next Thursday only six days away, this morning I imposed a deadline of tomorrow at 5 pm to develop a plan to look more like a human woman.  And by 3:00 pm today, the plan was complete.  

I am now the happy owner of a fairly decent wig, and some eyelashes too – with many thanks to my forever friend Jan. 

The first thing we did was gather a few photographs of me with hair - a good idea since the wig ladies would have no frame of reference.  Then we drove to the wig store, Wig & Beauty Plus on McCain Boulevard, next door to Pet Smart.  What a delightful place and the ladies there were so very kind. 

Getting started in a wig shop is probably like taking beginner rodeo classes.  You have to have a few trial runs before you can lasso the prize.  We started with a few wigs that looked a little frightening – too long, too short, too curly, too many layers, too red, too many color shades, etc. etc.  I’m not sure why I’m not good at this – but I’m just not.  

Jan and I have been friends for 32 years.  She has seen me at my best, and at my worst.  She knows me sometimes better than I know myself.  And she certainly is in tune with my very expected and uneventful hair-styles over the last three decades.  My hair is flat and straight, never holds a curl, has multiple shades of brown and auburn (like a quilt), and just kind of sits there.  How do you describe that to the wig store lady?  So Jan diligently perused the hundreds and hundreds of wigs perched all over the store.  And then she found it – the magic wig.  The minute it went onto my head, we knew we had a winner!  It was almost me – but with hair again!!  We knew immediately we had the right one. 

Then the nice wig lady mentioned that she had some eyelashes for sale too.  Yippee!!  Not only did I want to buy them, I wanted to walk out the door wearing these lovely lashes..  She kindly obliged, put on the lash glue and within minutes I had eyelashes.  Oh my – how I love my new lashes.  If I may say so myself, they make this cancer patient look quite stunning! 

Tonight Jan and Randal and Tim and I are going out for dinner.  And I’m going to have hair all over my head!  Lots of it!  I will definitely make a toast to my dear friend Jan, good-looking wigs, very nice wig ladies and beautiful eyelashes too.