My first tattoo.......then my henna crown!

Before my chemo, I got my first real tattoo. It was a cold winters day in Portland. We were snowed in and not much to do. My landlady is a fine tattoo artist who so happens to have her tattoo studio here at the house.
I had talked about getting a tattoo for years but never got around to it. I couldn't decide what to put where. Dianne (my landlady) suggested I think about doing something connected to my experience with my breast cancer.
I gave it some thought and did some research and decided I wanted to have a phoenix tattoo, representing rebirth, being reborn out of the ashes, being reborn coming through chemo.
Well on that cold day last winter Dianne asked me "how about that tattoo?"
So I got it done, my first tattoo. It is pretty darn cool!!!
When Wendy Rover did my first Henna Crown well................they both looked awesome! And I felt absolutely beautiful!!!
When I had gone to the grocery store for the first time after getting my Crown people would approach me and smile and say how lovely I looked and what a incredible job Wendy did. Everyone liked my phoenix tattoo also.
Wearing my henna crown had made me become very approachable, easy to talk to and start a conversation. People smiled and that made me smile. People shared their stories of loved ones who had gone through chemo. I was told what a wonderful, positive, idea it was, wearing the henna crown.
I highly recommend wearing a Henna Crown! See more of Wendys work at http://www.roveringhorse.com/
To find a henna artist in your area look under artists in Craigslist or go to a National Henna site called http://www.hennapage.com/

You can go on their forum and ask where to find a Henna Artist in your area. Its also great reading to learn " everything you ever wanted to know about henna! "
Its a very Positive thing!!

Going to loose your hair because of Chemo? try this....

I'll tell you what I did. I was going through Craigslist like I always do and I ran across an ad for hair models. Students in a Beauty School advertise for people to come in so they can practice cutting hair.
Well I thought to myself, I am going to loose my hair anyway, why not let someone get some practice and I get a new look.
I met a wonderful lady named Sara who was soooo nice. She cut my hair several times over a couple of weeks. My hairdos were getting shorter and shorter. And that was ok.
When my hair started to fall out in clumps Sara shaved my head.
Her work station was in the very back of rows and rows of work stations. Sara's fellow students
were so nice also. They were all looking while I had my head shaved. Sara's supervisor, Jackie, is a gem! Everyone was so very supportive.
While my head was being shaved we had fun with that too. No, I didn't take any pictures and I kinda regret that now. Lets just say we had some real fun with my hair.
Now I will tell ya, it was very weird looking in the mirror at myself with no hair in a beauty salon school. Very weird indeed!
Let me remind you I was in the VERY back work station. So leaving, I had to walk past all of the other work stations! I must tell you ,I got the biggest kick out of seeing the looks I got walking past students and models alike. It was priceless!!!!
And I was the only one that day that left the beauty school without buying any hair products!!!
The idea about all this was to turn a negative (loosing my hair) into a positive (trying out new hairdos and giving someone practice cutting hair).
I had a really good time of it and met some wonderful people besides! I highly recommend it!!

Wendy Rover.............my henna angel!

When I lost my hair a wig was out of the question. To much fuss, scarves were the same and I just didn't like how I looked "trying" to hide that I didn't have hair.

Loosing my hair "was harder" than loosing my breasts. When my hair started to fall out I had my hair shaved. It would have been very difficult loosing my hair little by little. So I had it shaved!

Not that bad! Really! Think about it. No hair, no hair products to buy. Saves time in the morning too. No hair to style and fuss over!

I looked at myself....my bald head and all........and I saw a blank canvas. What could I do with this to make myself feel better. I'll be honest with you, I was a little depressed about this whole breast cancer thing. But I was also determined "not"to let it get me down.

And then I found WENDY ROVER!!! http://www.rovinghorse.com/.

I invited some friends over and we had a Henna Party. A small gathering of friends. I invited a very nice young lady named Jennifer Hummel to photograph the henna being done and just spent a very pleasant time of it. I must say that I felt overwhelmed with the beauty and skill of Wendy's work. There is nothing like wearing a piece of art on your head!!

There's more I have to share......but later. Hope you stop by again to find out what happened after I ventured out with my new Henna Crown!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by..........see ya soon!

You can find more of Jennifer Hummels work at www.myspace.com/jennsphotos

My first Henna Crown

What does a lady do when she has no hair? She gets a henna crown of course! But first she finds a very talented henna artist who, lucky for her, is in her home town.

This is my story....... so far, about how I am coping since I found out I had breast cancer. I hope to inspire others to try henna art as a means of healing and feeling beautiful during a very challengening time. It made all the difference in my life and led me down paths I never would have dreamed.