It is now August 2011 and my hair is growing. It is almost an inch long. Sometimes Tiffany airbrushes zebra stripes on my hair - they are pretty subtle, as my hair is kinda black and white (I think they call it salt-and-pepper). Many things have been happening in our lives to keep us too busy to keep shaving and painting. The story and pictures of the head-painting fun is below.

In the beginning of my cancer journey, Tiffany created henna designs on my head (see that story on the "Henna Head" page). One day we ran out of henna so Tiffany used our face paint on my head. We never went back to henna! A couple of times a week we took a few hours out of the day to get a new painted design. We were addicted. When my hair started growing back we decided that I'd shave, and we continued the paintings for almost two and one-half years!

As with the henna, there is at least one heart in each painting.

Tiffany says that she has never been a painter, but you could fool me. I think the designs are beautiful, and each one is more spectacular than the last!

The hairdos at the bottom of the page are not in chronological order, but newer ones are at the top. As of October 2010, I'm not putting in every hairdo. I should weed out the less spectacular ones, but that task seems overwhelming! In all, Tiffany painted over 200 hairdos for me. I think she is AWESOME!


I've really gottten into the Phoenix and dragon hairdos - lots of fire. I think of myself as being the fierce fighter -as a dragon. The Phoenix rising out of the ashes to be reborn - yup, that's me, too. I'm so thankful to have energy again, and a great fierceness to live every moment has engulfed me.

St. Patty's day!

I love the doves and ribbons!


Doves and three wise men for Christmas. I hated to wash this hairdo off.

Different trees that showed up in December.
It is Halloween again! How swiftly time flies. This is the hairdo that Tiffany painted for our Channel 7 interview. See more about that interview on my News Stories page.
Shae's last day of chemo! We just love him and his spirit. See more about him on my Events page.

This is the LARGEST (and most beautiful) butterfly ever! Hairdo #167.

On October 8, we attended the event "Toast Across America" that Barlows Premium Cigars and Pipes put on to raise money for Cigar Family Charitable Foundation.

This is the logo of the cheritable foundation.
This hairdo and the next 3 are the ones that Tiffany painted for our New Orleans trip. We were there to attend the National Funeral Directors Association meeting, where we were promoting Tiffany's business. We had lots of fun there - the hairdos were a great hit. More about this on my Events page.

This is the hairdo I wore to the Susan G. Komen Race in Denver. Notice the large ribbon with the Komen ribbon inside it (in the picture on the left below).

This is the hairdo I wore for The Fourth Annual Amanda Gonzales 5K Memorial Run that is mentioned on the Events page. The ladybugs were in honor of Delaney ("Laneybug").

I love, love, love this hairdo!

OK, long story about the next four pictures. For quite some time I have been feeling like the mythological Phoenix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_%28mythology%29). I have asked Tiffany to paint the Phoenix and fire on my head, but only one time has she ever felt moved to do it (that was head #119 further on down - I loved that hairdo). On Labor Day weekend, I worked at Taste of Colorado with the face painter friend who was the true inspiration for all my face/head painting. Her name is Leah and her link is on my Links page. Anyway, I told Leah that I would like to have the Phoenix, and she painted it (quite fabulously, I might say). I was very sad when I had to wash this off.

Funny little story to go along with this: One day two young men (they appeared to be skate board dudes) stopped to tell me that I was "totally off the hook". That made me happy! Leah and I both got a good laugh out of it.

 
 
 
This is the 134th hairdo. I officially like being bald more than I like having hair!

Lattice all over my head! This is the only time Tiffany has painted lattice - I think it is pretty fabulous!
I'm getting a tan because of the walking that I'm doing. I guess working in the yard helps, too.

This was the Aspen Race For The Cure. It was a beautiful day in many ways. My grandson, Mason, attended with Tiffany and me. We did face painting and Mason joined a couple of the runs. Afterward, we had fun in Aspen. What a beautiful town! The next day, Tiffany, Mason and I went river rafting - what a hoot!
 
 
 

Happy 4th of July!

   
 
 
 
Love the Pheonix! Sometimes I ask for dragons, but I don't suppose that will ever happen.
This is hairdo #117! We've been doing this for over a year, I believe. I cannot remember exactly when we started.

SPLASH!
Look how long Tiffany's hair is. She's even had a few haircuts since head-shave-day!
 

Sometimes people ask when I'll start letting my hair grow back. I really don't know the answer. As long as we feel like I'm being an encouragement to others, or until we wear out, we'll keep it up. We're scheduled to volunteer our face painting at a few cancer awareness events. We think my painted head is more meaningful at the events than a stubbly head would be.

My granddaughter, Tessa, has a blue trumpet. When she had a concert, we decided I should have a "concert head". That is Tessa - blowing the trumpet on my head!
Tiffany and I attended Art For The Cure in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Tiffany donated a necklace that sold in the silent auction. A couple of days later, someone told me that they saw me on the Cheyenne news.

The butterflies get more beautiful every time!

Tiffany constantly amazes me as she gets better and better!
 

Tiffany thought I needed extra love today - my last day of Herceptin treatments. The end of a year of them!

We tried something different on this hairdo. Most of it is done with stencils, with some of the color being stamping ink. The red flower in the picture below is a temporary tattoo. It is a nice option for people who would like to be decorated but don't have Tiffany around to paint on them all the time!

Tiffany said that metal stencils work better than the flexible plastic ones - they leave a nicer edge.


New Year's Eve 2009. The clock had glow-in-the-dark paint. That was fun!

This hairdo had glow-in-the-dark all over. It made my head wrinkle when it was dry. EEK!
I just loved this hairdo. I wore it until it was shameful that so much hair was sticking through the paint. It still makes my heart swell to look at the pictures.
The next four pictures are of the hairdo I wore when Tiffany and I worked with a friend at a kids bull riding event. It was close enough to Christmas that we thought it would be funny to have Santa on a bucking bull yelling "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa" with all the real cowboys cheering him on. Apparently we thought it was funnier than it really was, as people didn't comment on it at all. Oh, well...

Tiffany working on my hairdo.

My radiation doctor wanted to see Reindeer, so this hairdo came along.
 

The next few are a "do" that Tiffany did before I attended the Nutcracker ballet. This is her first time to try her hand at people. I think she did a fantastic job!


This is my "Great Day Houston" hairdo.
I'm wearing my new earrings from I. W. Marks!

 
 
 
These are a bit premature for Christmas but we were in a holiday craft fair, so we went "Christmasy".
These 3 are henna. We did them so we could do the next design with leopard spots.

This do was for a holiday show where Tiffany and I displayed her artwork.

 

 
My lovely Tiffany painting my Halloween hairdo.

I'll never have black face paint this close to my eyes again! pain

After all, it IS Halloween!

This was our first experience with painting the head. It was done by an artist at the Reniassance Fair.

The first head painting by Tiffany. Can you guess that it was in July? Actually, July of 2009.


I look like I'm very sunburned. In reality, I was running quite a fever, though I didn't realize it. I thought I was just hot from the weather in July. I was at my mom's place in SE Colorado for a family reunion (temps in the 100's). When I got back to Greeley, I went to see the doctor, as I realized I was pretty sick. I had quite a case of cellulitis that landed me in the hospital. I was on drip antibiotics for almost two weeks (part of which was as an outpatient).
 

This is the do I wore to Antiques Road Show in Denver. The show host, Mark Walberg, asked, "Is that your natural color?" as he pointed to my head. Cute response.
 


smirk
 
About the one to the left and the two in the row above: Tiffany wasn't around, so my sister, Karon, and I tried our hand at painting. I think it was fine for our first try. We didn't do a second try...
 

My birthday do.