Bye, brows

Great... Just as I'm nearly finished with chemo and my hair is starting to grow back on my head, now my eyebrows (and some of my eyelashes) are falling out!! My Grandma H. always used to tell me I looked like Brooke Shields—I wish—and I'm pretty sure she said that because of my thick eyebrows. Well, my once glorious eyebrows have noticeably gotten sparse, as the picture below makes clear.

Speaking of eyebrows, this past Thursday I attended a workshop at Texas Oncology called "Look good...feel better." This is a nationwide program in which volunteer cosmetologists teach cancer patients how to apply makeup and take care of their skin. Skin care is important because chemo and radiation can cause your skin to become severely parched, almost reptile-like. A very nice cosmetologist went through various products and showed us how to use them. I even learned how to pencil in fake "eyebrows"! Knowing me, though, I'll probably just opt to go eyebrow-less. It would be too much effort to pencil them in every day. Plus, in this 105 degree heat, my eyebrows would end up running down my face in sweaty, brown streaks, completely blowing my cover! At the end of the workshop we were each given a bag full of beauty products, donated by cosmetic companies. I'll be giving away most of it to my niece or sister, who love that stuff. But I'm keeping the face moisturizer to soothe my reptilian skin!

Trust me...my eyebrows used to be a lot thicker before chemo. You can also see I have some eyelashes missing.