I am in Astoria, Oregon and very excitedly getting ready for my sisters wedding tomorrow. Now getting ready for a wedding is a both joyous and stressful in the final count down - but being in treatment for cancer adds its own "layer" to the event.
Take for instance the simple task of putting on make up for the blessed occasion. A little tweezing to perfect the brow, a little mascara to lengthen the appearance of the eyelashes, a bit of eyeliner and shadow to emphasis the rest of the eye area are all everyday occurrences for the majority of the western female population. But alas, when our friend Taxol (a drug in my chemo cocktail) is involved, I am required to divorce myself from the western female population and become more akin to a drag show artist. The absence of the brow makes tweezing a bad word - I mean really, leave the 6 hairs on the right brow and 13 on the left brow alone. Hell, I even thought about buying super glue and chasing down the neighborhood long haired rocker kid with a pair of scissors. Oh come on, he would never miss a snipe or two. Then there are the eyelashes - or more precisely, there are NO eyelashes. OK, I may have exaggerated - I have 7 eyelashes sporadically dispersed between the upper and lower area of BOTH eyes. I defy Covergirl to lengthen and thicken that!
So I thought, I have an "ever-so-not-lucrative" art degree, maybe I will artistically apply shadows and liners to give the appearance of lashes and brows. Who really looks that closely anyway? Brushes and shadows in hand, I spend an entire afternoon practicing to get that perfect look - almost. The next morning was not pretty. Eyes puffy and weeping from the simple ingredients that one once so easily applied, I began to rethink my strategy.
All in all it came out OK - fake eyelashes (trimmed to remove the drag queen element), a steady hand with a sharp brow pencil and my wonderful wig stylist brought together a look that no one could tell was not natural. I got my dream to blend in and look normal and my sister was a beautiful bride who more than stood out and looked fabulous. I am very proud of my sister and congratulate Katie and Brian on a wise choice and the most beautiful wedding I have been to.
Take for instance the simple task of putting on make up for the blessed occasion. A little tweezing to perfect the brow, a little mascara to lengthen the appearance of the eyelashes, a bit of eyeliner and shadow to emphasis the rest of the eye area are all everyday occurrences for the majority of the western female population. But alas, when our friend Taxol (a drug in my chemo cocktail) is involved, I am required to divorce myself from the western female population and become more akin to a drag show artist. The absence of the brow makes tweezing a bad word - I mean really, leave the 6 hairs on the right brow and 13 on the left brow alone. Hell, I even thought about buying super glue and chasing down the neighborhood long haired rocker kid with a pair of scissors. Oh come on, he would never miss a snipe or two. Then there are the eyelashes - or more precisely, there are NO eyelashes. OK, I may have exaggerated - I have 7 eyelashes sporadically dispersed between the upper and lower area of BOTH eyes. I defy Covergirl to lengthen and thicken that!
So I thought, I have an "ever-so-not-lucrative" art degree, maybe I will artistically apply shadows and liners to give the appearance of lashes and brows. Who really looks that closely anyway? Brushes and shadows in hand, I spend an entire afternoon practicing to get that perfect look - almost. The next morning was not pretty. Eyes puffy and weeping from the simple ingredients that one once so easily applied, I began to rethink my strategy.
All in all it came out OK - fake eyelashes (trimmed to remove the drag queen element), a steady hand with a sharp brow pencil and my wonderful wig stylist brought together a look that no one could tell was not natural. I got my dream to blend in and look normal and my sister was a beautiful bride who more than stood out and looked fabulous. I am very proud of my sister and congratulate Katie and Brian on a wise choice and the most beautiful wedding I have been to.