Hi everyone,

I just posted a bunch of photos on my page from my recent trip to the Cayman Islands and Florida. Please take a look. (There's also a recent one of me performing with my band, which I posted because it shows me wearing one of the Turkish scarves from my video.)

We dove on Little Cayman Island in the Caribbean for 9 days, then snorkeled with the manatees in Florida and toured the Everglades. I got some great underwater video (that's the camera I'm carrying in the photos.) Diving bald is great! As I expected, it was a lot easier than with hair. The wetsuit slipped on without sticking to my head (and I didn't have to struggle to tuck all my hair under the dive cap once the suit was on). I got to sit and relax after dives as I watched other women on the boat try to untangle their hair. I was able to get dry quickly after a dive because I didn't have wet hair. My tatooed eyebrows and liner stayed on in and out of the water - you can see my eyes through the scuba mask. The other women were jealous of my smooth legs and underarms. And, once everyone had their dive caps on, we all looked the same, anyway!

I was bald pretty much the whole trip, except when I needed a hat for sun protection or a cap for warmth. No one thought anything of it, and few people said anything about it. I explained about alopecia when they asked, and my baldness was a conversation-starter at times. I went through airport security bald, and every one was extra nice. On an airplane, a guy with male pattern baldness said he wished he could get his head as shiny as mine. I told him I use a fine grade of sandpaper on it! (Then I told him the truth, and he wanted to feel my head.)

Yes, I had moments when I felt self-conscious, but for the most part, I just didn't think about it. More and more, it's just who I am, and I actually feel special looking the way I do. I DID think several times about what this trip would have been like if I weren't comfortable being seen as I am - if I were wearing a wig or trying to conceal my lack of hair. Since we were in and out of the water, doing 3 dives a day, and the weather was sometimes warm, I really can't imagine doing this sort of trip in a wig.

I'll be putting some videos of my dive videos up on YouTube sometime soon.