Reactions

I've spent the last couple of days looking after my six-year-old god-daughter.  I had worried slightly that she would be freaked out by my lack of hair, or embarrassed to be seen with me in public.  I needn't have been.  After the first 30 seconds she paid it no attention at all, and we just got on with the important business of having fun.  And because she forgot all about it, so did I.

As she lives on the other side of London, I also spent a fair chunk of time on public transport.  What I noticed from this was that, rather in contrast to my expectations, no-one really gave me and my shaved head a second glance.  So I was beginning to think no-one was really going to notice my head-shave very much.

But today I went back to work, and then it got interesting!  It seems like the people who are most thrown by a change in appearance are not those closest to you.   I suppose they  have the benefit of being prepared by knowing what you're going to do.  It's not people who don't know you at all - they don't know you look any different from usual.  The people who have reacted most have been people who don't know me, but see me every day - in the lift, in the kitchen, by the photocopier or the water cooler.  People I smile at, even say hallo to, but who know nothing about me or my life, other than that I work in the same building as them.

It has been those people who have looked at me twice, in whose faces I have seen curiosity or concern, to which I have responded by explaining that I've shaved my hair off to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

One conversation had a big impact on me.  I suppose I was ready for people thinking I might be ill myself, and the conversation that might lead to.  What I wasn't so prepared for was to have a conversation about someone else's loss.  A woman let out a little exclamation when she saw me, and when I offered my explanation, she said "You reminded me of my daughter".  We talked a little about it - the longest conversation I've ever had with her - someone I see most days that I'm at work.

I saw pain, anger, frustration, sadness.  They were not directed at, or caused by me, but  my hair (or lack of it) had triggered memories that brought them to the surface.

It made me glad that my target of raising £1000 no longer seems as unrealistic as I initially thought - so please sponsor me and help me reach it.