So I got all excited when I spoke to M on the phone the other day, because she mentioned donating her hair. I had been thinking the EXACT same thing, and had even looked up the Locks of Love website to see what the locks requirements were. 10 inches…I might have that much by March or April, when she will likely start chemo and the hair starts to go. Colored okay, but not bleached.

I’ve been kind of holding out for something I could do to show my support. I’d been thinking lately, perhaps subconsciously because of M’s cancer, but thinking nonetheless, that I might be done with the whole long hair thing. This would be perfect – we could go to see her hairdresser together, before hers starts to fall out, and get sassy short cuts and donate our hair. But…foiled. M’s lightest color is bleached. So I don’t think her hair is donatable (is that a word?). Apparently they can pick the gray out of mine, but not the bleached bits out of hers. Back to the drawing board.

So I thought, perhaps a subtle pink bow I could get for my purse, or even some of the pink rubber support bracelets that I could buy and send out to some of our closest family and friends. I went online to look around for what I might be able to get my hands on.

Lo and behold – you would not believe the breast cancer merchandise out there. I found everything from Ugg-style boots with the pink ribbon logo, to pink camouflage support ribbon-shaped kitchen sponges. I am all for supporting the cause, and if buying the camo kitchen sponge gives more money to breast cancer research, well then I suppose that’s a good thing. But good lord. Just make a nice $10 donation to Susan G. Komen.

But I guess, too, that that’s just my style, and different people deal with their journey in different ways. Putting that pink ribbon on everything they own may just help them feel better and get through difficult days. And I have to be supportive of that. However I will not be buying M a handmade ceramic pink ribbon wind chime for her back porch.