Hollywood, You'll Have to Wait

The celebrity testimonial is a common (and effective) form of advertising. For example, the objective of this Louis Vuitton advertisement is to convince me that if I buy a Louis Vuitton tote bag and travel to Cambodia, I will be as beautiful as Angelina Jolie. Or maybe, just maybe, I'll believe that buying the tote bag will be enough to make me feel like I'm Angelina.

Nope, sorry, I'm too smart for that one. I have, however, fallen victim to a different type of celebrity testimonial. Since I lost my hair, a good friend of mine has been sending me pictures of starlets, in fancy evening gowns, who have blonde, pixie haircuts.

As my hair had been growing back, I'd been picturing myself with one of those trendy, short, blonde styles. Unfortunately, the imagination didn't stop there. I had myself convinced that once I'm able to have the haircut, I'll actually be a glamorous Hollywood star, just like the celebrities in the forwarded photos from my friend. 

Yes, I realize it's ridiculous, but somehow the image evolved to include the chandelier diamond earrings on-loan from Cartier, the bleached white teeth, the perfect dimples, a red carpet-worthy gown designed by Versace, and get this-- a starring role in Woody Allen's next film.

In my defense, it's a lot more fun to imagine that than to think about acute promyelocytic leukemia and alopecia (hair loss) from the chemotherapy. (And yes, I am keeping things in perspective. This medicine is saving my life. Hair is irrelevant in comparison. But there's nothing wrong with having a little fun.)

Unfortunately, the Hollywood dream will have to be shelved for a while. My oncologist told me that most likely, I will not lose my hair during these two rounds of chemotherapy. His prediction doesn't appear to be panning out. (Hopefully his predictions about my remission status will be more accurate.) I'm hoping this will just be a thinning, and not a total loss. Either way, it doesn't appear that my hair will be movie-star quality any time soon. Maybe hats or the bald look will come into vogue on the red carpet ...