The Hair Shirt

It's growing in...soft and much grayer than the last time I saw it au naturel. Kind of like George Clooney's in his last season of ER, before Darfur. Not quite long enough, for my comfort anyway, to go out in public. And yet it comes in useful. Sometimes I just don't feel like putting on Ethel just because someone has come to my front door. Is it wrong to let your chemo crop out to elicit sympathy or perhaps a lower plumbing bill? Can I whip Ethel off when stopped by a cop? When lunching with a narcissist?