Hair today, gone tomorrow

One of the promises of pregnancy is great hair, essentially because the body is too busy growing a new person to be bothered with telling old hair strands that it is time to move on.

Now, this was one of the promises that never materialised for me, really. Not only did I not have fantastic hair, I lived with bad hair months, all because I got a little too adventurous at my hair appointment in July. That said, I did notice that my hair was happy to stay attached to my head.

My hair has always been very very thick. So thick that, when I was little, my mother couldn't find elastics forgiving enough to hold a ponytail. I learnt how to twist my hair into a bun without an elastic, just heavy duty harpoon-style bobby pins. And because it was both very thick and long (sometimes very very very long), when I shed I outdid all the pets I'd ever had, combined. In Sudbury, I loved to brush or comb my hair on the deck; the loose hair could just float away into the forest. My mother even found a bird's nest that had been lined with my hair. Every bathroom I'd ever used was populated with Melanie-hair-tumbleweeds which stubbornly reproduced despite persistent vacuumings.

But during pregnancy my hair stopped shedding. Delight!! Even during washings, not a single strand would jump ship.

In January, I started to notice the odd strand. Now, it is by the handful. I expected this, but to tell the truth I expected it to start as soon as the baby had hatched, not months later. The reprieve was lovely while it lasted, but I guess now I'll be paying for it.