Young Samson Loses His Hair

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post called Solidarity - to see if anyone else would shave their heads (donating their hair or not) to show solidarity with me and my hair loss 'adventure' soon after I began chemo treatments. Much to my surprise, there were quite a few of you that did just that and sent in pictures of your buzzed or otherwise-cut hair! The show of support from near and far warmed my heart and helped me feel a little less isolated with the beginning of my cancer journey. Thank you for that.

Joshua also wanted to be part of the crew that cut their hair, but he knew it wasn't long enough to donate - that, and I urged him to keep it long (so one of us could have some friggin' hair) and so he could eventually donate it to a great cause. And he did. About 3-4 years in the making, it grew quite long:

Oh boy! Look at all that hair!

He tried - unsuccessfully - several times last fall and winter to donate. It was still just a bit too short. This spring, he was getting antsy to cut it off.

So last weekend as he was getting out of the shower I said "How about we cut it off today?" And this was his expressive reply:----->

I took it as a "yes."   :)

And so the de-hairing Joshua project began.


But wait! First check out this short video of what we'd been contending with for some time. His long hair required more regular clean-up in our bathroom shower and floor. Eew! I'm sure we could have made several wigs with the drain catch hair by now:

Lookin' good.

As he said in the video, he was a "hairy mo' fo'!"

I felt privileged that he let me cut his hair. Just two years prior, he was the one that tenderly cut several ponytails of hair off my head and then gave me a buzz cut. I was up for the challenge and did a decent job, methinks.

Spousal bias makes me believe he looks great any way he has his head or facial hair. And it's true! As much as I knew I'd miss the long locks, it's like I had hubby v2.0 at first - how exciting! :)

Bye-bye, hair.
Hello, handsome!

Contrary to what happened when Samson lost his hair, Joshua seems to have gained new strength in embracing this drastic change. We all get attached to how we look, and it's both frightening and exhilarating when big change occurs. Whether the change originates from yourself or an external force, it's still something your mind adjusts to in some fashion.


We promptly filled out a hair donation form from the Locks of Love web site and sent his hair on its way to help out a child with long-term medical hair loss (stemming from any type of diagnosis). It filled our hearts to do something that we know will help another individual.

Getting packed up and ready to mail.

Joshua's new look.