About Me

Monday 4 April 2011

Is there a secret barber in you?

I woke up this morning with my mind made up.  I wanted to cut my hair today i.e reduce its length from the 7 or so centimetres to about 1 cm.  It simply could not wait any longer.

Now, since the onset of hair loss on thursday, I have been planning to go to the salon to have the job done.  My 2 sisters have both volunteered for the job, but somehow upon waking up today, I decided that the right man for the job is no other than my dad.  And I can tell you, I made the right decision.

If you don't know my dad, let me give you a quick picture of him.  He is 72 years old, the quiet type, ever-ready for service and happy to live in simplicity. 

The news of me having cancer was hard on both my parents  For my mom (a former nurse) it became easier with time since she is somewhat familiar with cancer treatment and its side effects.  For my dad, it was harder I think.  The information on steps of the treatment had to be dosed rightly and often repeated several times just so it would sink in slowly in him.

Somehow, his brain could not fully wrap itself around the concept of me getting bald (hell, my brain is still having a hard time with this one!!!).  We would talk about it, but up until I actually started losing hair, I think he was skeptical about the whole thing and hopeful that it would not happen!

So this morning, I purposely asked him to cut my hair and to prove the necessity of it, I took him outside and ran my fingers through my hair.  Sure enough, a nice little pile of hair came off and he looked at it a bit quizzicallly.

It took just that to convince him that the moment had arrived.  We then went about setting up a place for the deed.

We picked the living room.  My mom brought an old bed sheet and my father sharpened the only pair of scissors he could find. He then proceeded to chop chop chop.

Dear God!  If at the beginning, I felt a bit teary, by the end of it I was bursting with laughter!  My dad found himself ENJOYING cutting my hair!!!!  He was so pleased with the end result that he said he might consider turning into a barber!

So now, with my prisoner cut (which incidentally looks good -except for the odd patches where the scissors went too deep), I am delighted and relieved that my father is part and parcel of this joyride called cancer.  Alhamdulillah!

Ownership is important and sometimes, having a secret barber in you helps just that little bit more :)

4 comments:

  1. I love your dad and mum! Please pass on my love to them xoxo

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  2. Im sure the short hair suits you. You have nice sharp features, so just enjoy it. Not many of us dare to chop off our hair. I couldnt do it even when living in 44 degrees in delhi summer was unbearable. Im happy that you're taking it positive Shaf. What Im proud of is that somewhere, you've made this tough period as an opportunity for self-exploration and deep contemplation. Im soooooooooo proud of you Shaf. May God be with you always!

    Love
    Nivedita

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  3. Thanks a lot Nive. Your support means a lot to me. You've been close enough to all this to understand better than others.

    And I see that you've worked out the comments function! So I'll expect comments more regularly now :)

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