Yeah, today I’m getting my haircut. What a challenge it has been to keep my hair looking decent and not dowdy since I’ve become challenged with ME/CFS, MCS and a related Neuromuscular condition.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and hair salons do not mix. MCS emerged with ME/CFS (It often is a part of the illness for many of us). My MCS has progressed since its onset a dozen years ago, and now is quite severe. Since the products used in hair salons (which now include nail salons) are filled with toxic chemicals I have to some heavy duty investigating (with the help of my hubby) to find a salon that doesn’t cause me to hit the ground when I walk in. My husband has to check out the salon first to make sure I won’t be exposed to nail product fumes. Then, I have to call the salon and ask for a stylist who does not use perfume or heavily scented products. Still the chemicals of the hair dyes, sprays, etc. are unavoidable so I have to take some medication to help me through the haircut, and do some physical recouping afterwards. I do not get my hair colored as I absolutely tolerate can’t tolerate the fumes. I am trying my best to celebrate my incoming grey hair (hey, they have a wave to them. After a life time of straight hair, that’s kinda fun right?)
Since I have a Neuromuscular condition sitting up in the straight back chair is hard for me. I bring pillows to prop up my arms and work with a stylist kind enough to put up with my slouching in the chair as much as possible.
I often have to cancel appointments due to ME/CFS…some days I am just too sick to get there. How grateful I am for the salon that I have been going to the past few years…they cancel and reschedule my appointments cheerfully, even if I have to cancel just hours beforehand.
Okay, off to start the process of getting ready for my appointment…showering, getting dressed, eating breakfast, collecting my purse, water bottles, pillows and husband to drive me. Hair cut day is quite an excursion that demands for those of us with ME/CFS much exertion. But, what a good feeling it is when my hair is cut and styled…perks up my spirits.
Those of you with ME/CFs and other illnesses that make it difficult to keep your hair looking perty…how do you do it?
Wow, you’re making me realize how lucky I am! We’ve been going to the same hair stylist for 20 years – we’ve followed her around to 4 different salons! She’s wonderful and cuts hair for all four of us and has become a friend over the years. I’m fortunate enough not to have MCS and to be able to tolerate a visit to the salon most days. Though with 3 of us in the house with CFS, she certainly understands anytime we have to cancel at the last minute!
Hope your visit goes well and you enjoy your new style! You’ve reminded me we’re overdue…
Sue
Sue´s last blog ..Movie Monday 11/16
Hi Kerry
I have severe MCS and do not go into salons ever. I had someone who was cutting my hair before MCS became so severe and she is willing to come to the house. She comes on days she does not have perms to do, etc. For quite awhile Joel and I cut it, but it was too exhausting for me, my hair was not looking so good, and it added stress to Joel when he cut the back for me, so now every couple of months she comes to the house and is here and gone n a half hour. Works well. I open windows when I can, put on our large air purifier, and wear a carbon mask. Some stylists go to nursing homes and cut hair for residents so I figured I could ask if she would come here. It worked out fine…I pay her a few dollars extra is all.
Our chiropractor also makes a house visit…for extra money.
Hope your trip to the salon goes well!
Renee´s last blog ..Reflecting, Reviewing, Relapsing,Resigning, Restoring
Sue, so glad you and your sons don’t have MCS and that you have a stylist you like enough to follow for twenty years-wow. Still it is hard to get there with ME/CFS–and aren’t we glad there are nice people who get it when we have to cancel.
Renee, What an example your experiences are of just how difficult keeping our hair up is for those with MCS. Great that you found someone you like who comes to your home. I did that for a few years until she started working full time and no longer had time. In some states it isn’t legal to cut hair in homes (in Europe it is a common thing) so not always easy to find an “in home” stylist. I think is ridiculous as there are so many homebound people who need the service.
Before my Neuromuscular condition hit and my arms went too weak to hold them up I cut my husbands hair too. Yes, it takes a whole lot of energy. Now he buzz cuts it himself…saving my arms, energy and money.
How creative we need to be to do normal things and tolerant of imperfection…like going for long periods of time with our hair looking not so good.
Hi Kerry,
MCS and haircuts are a tricky combination! Like you, I had to do extensive research to find a place when I made the last switch in where to get haircuts.
I had been spoiled for about 2 years with my sister cutting my hair (she’d do it over at her place). Granted, it took about an hour each way to get there and her chair was far less cushioned than salon chairs and she had to give me breaks to get up and move around mid-cut because of this fact (neurological issues and fibromyalgia actually made the chair she cut my hair on very painful). On the upside from back when she cut my hair, I didn’t have to worry about losing consciousness! She knew too well about what happens when fragrances knock me out because she has seen it happen.
Anyway, this arrangement stopped working when she went through a divorce and was no longer able to do our haircuts anymore (her plate was way too full to keep that up).
So I needed to scurry to find another way of getting my hair cut. I knew it would take awhile to find a place I could tolerate because I had been through this kind of search before she started cutting it. As expected, it took some time to find a salon that I could tolerate. (My hair grows super-fast and ideally needs cutting every 4 weeks; this does not help)!
Finally, I ran into another mom at a school function with a similar (short) cut to mine. We got talking and I asked her where she went for cuts. Come to find out, the place sounded like it just might work! (The poor woman. I was absolutely interrogating her about her salon because I could see light at the end of the tunnel).
It’s owned by a guy who is the only person working there. So, no worries about what’s happening with another customer a chair over or across the salon! I explained my situation to him when I called to inquire about his salon. He was very patient. He couldn’t have been nicer about my many questions. He totally understood that I can’t tolerate the smell of hair coloring products, perms, etc. No nails are done there ever. He offered (yes, you heard me right… he OFFERED before I even got a chance to ask) to schedule my appointments at times where there had been no coloring and such before me. PERFECT!
Since my arms are very weak from fibromyalgia, it’s all I can do to simply wash my own hair at home. So, I needed someone who can cut my daughter’s hair too. (I could never hold my arms up long enough to cut anyone’s hair).
Not a problem. He books us back to back, every 4 weeks, making sure we are NOT scheduled after after chemical processes but yet he schedules it after school for her. I bring the shampoo we use at home along with me and he uses that to wash our hair. (There’s no way either of us would tolerate the salon stuff).
She and I are both allergic to formaldehyde-releasing agents in particular and they are in most shampoos. Not to mention the fragrance of the salon shampoo would never work.
I am so thankful to have found this guy. He really understands how sick fragrances can make people.
As you know from having MCS, it’s not the smells themselves that cause symptoms (awful as they may smell!!!) but the toxins in those products (that other people can’t smell as acutely but that are unhealthy for ANYONE to use, inhale, etc.
Anyway, come to find out… during the first appointment there he mentioned that he has had occasions where certain fragrances (such as the strong mall perfume counter ones) have actually caused him to have breathing problems. So he had some personal experience to draw on with fragrances causing him respiratory symptoms.
Anyway, he never forgets to schedule us for a “safe” time and this is HUGE because I was starting to reach the point of losing hope of finding a salon I could tolerate… when I found his.
We’ve been going there for about 6 months now (monthly) and the only fragrance issue I ever had (once) was when the woman who had been cut before me had a fragrance on that must have transferred to the chair.
All I know is I walked in, smelled something awful, immediately walked back outside (thankfully a nice, sunny day), my daughter and I waited outside because the waiting room was out of the question until I could determine what was going on, the woman left, it became IMMEDIATELY obvious that SHE was the source of the awful smell as she walked by, we went in after she’d left, and then we figured out that her perfume got on the chair. (He was actually the “sniffer” who traced it to the chair. He thought the smell was awful too. Had I sniffed it like he did, however briefly, I probably would have gotten quite ill).
He immediately wiped down the chair to get the fragrance off of it and proceeded to offer to use a different chair for our cuts. His salon has a wickedly amazingly air filtration system because within a very short time, the smell began to dissipate! I thought for sure we’d have to re-schedule for another day but between him wiping down the chair, using another one for us, and having such a fantastic air filtration system… it was amazing how quickly her fumes calmed down.
I have fainted from fragrances plenty of times. Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to work out that day. When we were waiting outside, I was figuring on popping in long enough to say, “I’m sorry but I’ll have to call you to re-schedule because there is a fragrance affecting me”.
Instead, he quickly and cheerfully addressed the situation, we got our haircuts, and I never even reached the stage of feeling faint. (Had we not waited outside, the story would have had a much different ending).
Anyway, my husband used to get his hair cut by the same woman who did mine (prior to my sister cutting my hair) at a salon I was able to tolerate (thanks again to a stylist who went out of her way to keep me from being exposed to fumes). When she moved out of the area, my husband bought some clippers and started cutting his own hair to save money. He does a great job buzzing his own hair.
So, for the two out of three of us that really need a salon now that my sister is no longer available… I am happy to have found this one.
As far as the process of getting ready to go to such an appointment… I hear you there too. In fact, today I had an appointment (dental not hair) and my husband knew I was NOT up to driving. So he was nice enough to drive me and he was logged into work from the dentist’s waiting room… just working away… the whole time. I was so thankful that he drove me.
This particular dental appointment was not really optional. (As it turns out, I have an abscessed tooth and will need a root canal but needed to get the antibiotic going first; he gave me that today). Having stayed home alone quite ill last Christmas with an abscessed tooth that triggered a nasty sinus infection (in that case it was extracted 12/26), I had a feeling that today’s appointment would not result in simply being told it was a cavity.
Despite very frequent trips to a very good dentist, my teeth can’t get filled fast enough. It’s like my teeth are joining the rest of my body in falling apart.
So, anyway… I can relate to having my husband drive me places on days when I can’t too.
Happy Holidays!
Jeanne
Jeanne´s last blog ..Winter