Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen
I had a series of very weird dreams this morning, all of them involving hair. Touching it, untangling it, watching it wave in the wind, or feeling humiliated by it.
I have issue with my hair at times. Humidity makes it gigantic. Rain makes it curly. I have known to follow hairstyle trends, rather than get haircuts to flatter my frame. While my pattern grey is really cool looking at this point, it still represents the inevitable march of time that will leave my red hair white at some point.
And then, I read in the news last week that redheads and anesthesia do not get along. Motherfuckers. Didn't some other study say that redheads are impervious to pain? It seems that every two years, a study comes out on the mutation in the Mc1r gene that makes us so fiery, and also reinforces some stupid urban legend. I'm beginning to think that these scientists might be trying to prove their own particular fantasies. But that is neither here nor there.
And so, dental work. I've often discussed my dealings with the dentist, in explicit detail. I don't need to go through that excruciating series of stories again; but to sum up: my teeth are more inorganic compounds than they are human. It's Bionic. I have the Six Million Dollar Mouth.
I often compare the pain of tattoos as "SO much easier to handle than dental work". I have come out of anesthesia so many times in the middle of procedures; and been so embarrassed that I can't handle being in the middle of a root canal, that I just grit my teeth (so to speak) and took it. Crying the whole time, obviously, but the dentist would not see defeat from me. I would clean myself up after it was all over and start taking painkillers right away. Even now, as I think about the state of pain I need to be in to seek help from professionals, it's something that I don't think most would endure (examples: 1. I walked on a broken foot for three days prior to having it casted. 2. I dislocated my shoulder during a show, had a castmate pop it back in at Intermission, and finished Act II. I'm a motherfucking badass).
And so I wonder about the competing studies above. Apparently, we are both good and bad with pain and the blocking thereof. I think it can be explained thusly: We've learned to suck it up. We have such a skewed outlook on pain, that something that would be excruciating to another is something that we've already felt, processed, and internalized as something mildly annoying, but not bad enough to complain about it. Toughness because of routine painful experiences.
I don't know what it all means, but apparently we're also supposed to bruise easily, and I've still got a nice one from giving blood last week. But that could also be because I'm so pale pink that any other discoloration will stand out longer.
Damn hair.
I have issue with my hair at times. Humidity makes it gigantic. Rain makes it curly. I have known to follow hairstyle trends, rather than get haircuts to flatter my frame. While my pattern grey is really cool looking at this point, it still represents the inevitable march of time that will leave my red hair white at some point.
And then, I read in the news last week that redheads and anesthesia do not get along. Motherfuckers. Didn't some other study say that redheads are impervious to pain? It seems that every two years, a study comes out on the mutation in the Mc1r gene that makes us so fiery, and also reinforces some stupid urban legend. I'm beginning to think that these scientists might be trying to prove their own particular fantasies. But that is neither here nor there.
And so, dental work. I've often discussed my dealings with the dentist, in explicit detail. I don't need to go through that excruciating series of stories again; but to sum up: my teeth are more inorganic compounds than they are human. It's Bionic. I have the Six Million Dollar Mouth.
I often compare the pain of tattoos as "SO much easier to handle than dental work". I have come out of anesthesia so many times in the middle of procedures; and been so embarrassed that I can't handle being in the middle of a root canal, that I just grit my teeth (so to speak) and took it. Crying the whole time, obviously, but the dentist would not see defeat from me. I would clean myself up after it was all over and start taking painkillers right away. Even now, as I think about the state of pain I need to be in to seek help from professionals, it's something that I don't think most would endure (examples: 1. I walked on a broken foot for three days prior to having it casted. 2. I dislocated my shoulder during a show, had a castmate pop it back in at Intermission, and finished Act II. I'm a motherfucking badass).
And so I wonder about the competing studies above. Apparently, we are both good and bad with pain and the blocking thereof. I think it can be explained thusly: We've learned to suck it up. We have such a skewed outlook on pain, that something that would be excruciating to another is something that we've already felt, processed, and internalized as something mildly annoying, but not bad enough to complain about it. Toughness because of routine painful experiences.
I don't know what it all means, but apparently we're also supposed to bruise easily, and I've still got a nice one from giving blood last week. But that could also be because I'm so pale pink that any other discoloration will stand out longer.
Damn hair.