The Art of Make-up
AKA Just in time for Halloween…
One of my earliest childhood memories goes like this: When I was 5 years old, I found some pills in the bathroom medicine cabinet that looked like M&Ms. I promptly sampled them and quickly discovered that they weren’t candy. The medicine left my lips and tongue bright purple, which of course caused me to get busted by my mother. “Just in time for Halloween,” I remember her saying, which scared me because Halloween was weeks away. Were my lips and tongue going to stay purple?!
Years later in an unrelated event at the age of 13, during puberty and after a couple of fainting spells which landed me smack on the gym floor, my hair began to go white in a bold streak on the left side of my head. Then, to my horror, my eyebrow and eyelashes on that side also went white. I learned to use eye make-up and part my hair to cover the streak, and I feared the worst. Would I look as spooky as Mrs. Adams from the Adam’s Family? Would I end up being completely white on one side and dark brown on the other? My mother took me to a doctor and all he said was “People pay money to have that done. You’ll love it when you’re older.” Six months later it stopped.
Many years after that and with the help of the internet, I learned that the loss of pigment I experienced has a name: “segmental vitiligo.” Vitiligo, which shows up most on African Americans (and which Michael Jackson claims to have), can spread all over the body and generally gets progressively worse with time. The kind I had, “segmental,” only lasts about 6 months and is only on one side of the body, most commonly the head.
This past weekend in a “can you guess the lie?” post, I revealed 4 things about myself, one of which was a lie. Most readers guessed that the white eyebrow was the lie. While I don’t have a photo of my white eyebrow, I do have a poem about it (posted below). The first time I read it in public, I looked up as I was reading and noticed that people’s mouths were dropped open and their faces looked strained, as though they were struggling to understand what the heck I was talking about. I laughed and lost my rhythm and had to start the poem over, but not before giving a better set-up and a little background information.
My Missing Eyebrow
I don’t go out without it
my eyebrow
neatly matched
like shoe and sock
to the other one
I wonder if it’s crooked
If other people take theirs for granted
I worry that they’ll smudge it
or accidentally rub against it
And who’ll put my eyebrow on
when I get old
when I can’t even see
where it goes?
And what if I forget
and leave the house without it?
Will people be shocked
bold enough to ask
What happened to your eyebrow?!
I envy those
with reliable eyebrows
two that look just like each other
and people who can go out
without checking in the mirror
to ask, Does it look convincing?
Will it draw attention?
Will it have the durability
to last all day?
Photo: Butterfly art by Steve, Halloween, maybe 5 years ago. The comb-over completely covers the white streak, which you can see a little better here.” Don’t forget to check out the related photo below: My Little Prodigy 2.
October 17th, 2005 11:05 am
I like the poem. I didn’t know that this condition even existed. I bet it freaked your mom out. It seems like one of those things a mom would freak over before discovering it was no big deal. Thanks for the post.
October 17th, 2005 11:53 am
My mom didn’t freak out. I did! She had 9 kids and was not prone to freak out or take us to a doctor unless we were near dead.
October 17th, 2005 11:59 am
My second ex-husband had vitiligo…he had spots in the oddest places!
I almost got my face painted yesterday in Salem…chickened out, tho 🙂
October 17th, 2005 12:05 pm
Colleen, forgive me on that last comment. I swear, I only edited myself ONCE and posted it ONCE. It showed up about six times! Sorry.
I love the poem – it’s so adorable. The white streak makes you stand out from the rest… but not in a bad way, just in a ‘you’ way.
October 17th, 2005 12:20 pm
At the tender age of 13, when all we want to do is blend in, this must have been quite traumatic. I had a working acquaintance that had a beautiful white streak of hair across the top of her head. It was very striking. Never noticed anything about her eyebrows. Perhaps she also used makeup.
October 17th, 2005 6:02 pm
Laughing at the audience’s response. heehee ; ) cute poem.
October 17th, 2005 6:59 pm
My mom has vitiligo. She’s lost pigment over about 80% of her body. I think it’s unique that you have a white streak in your hair. I’ve seen that before and wondered why. I never knew that vitiligo could just stop. That’s a great poem too. My grandmother is a red-head, and she never had much in the way of eyebrows. Once she got old, they pretty much disappeared, so she has to draw them on. Sometimes she forgets. I’ll say “Maw, did you forget to put your eyebrows on again?” and she’ll say “Well, I must have.” HA!
October 17th, 2005 7:11 pm
Ok, we definitely have crossed in another life or our gene pool is merged somewhere. My daughter has a white streak in her hair and has had it since her late teens. People have stopped her asking how she got that color. It is striking against her brown, but she seems to be getting slowly grayer.
October 17th, 2005 7:23 pm
Don’t worry about the white spot. My B-I-L has one in the back of his head. He’s a popular night club “Billy Joel Wannabe.” One of my favorite college chums had that in the front. A few years later I ran across his brother while we were in the Army. How’d I recognize him? He had a white spot, too. Now…of all things, My First Wife’s hair is going from very dark brown to blondish streaks. Scattered about. Sex-eee!
Don’t worry about the spot.
October 17th, 2005 7:38 pm
About 20 years ago I attended a concert by a woman whose name I will probably remember at 3AM after wracking my brains. Anyway, she was 35 then, and she had a marvelous white streak in her hair. I thought it was the coolest thing. I think your white spot (and makeup!) look wonderful.
October 17th, 2005 11:40 pm
We had a neighbor when I was in high school, who had a gorgeous white streak in her otherwise black hair right on the top of her head. She styled her hair to take advantage of the streak, parting it in the middle and having the resultant streaks look like wavy wings. I envied her! Looks like I was wrong about your list.
October 18th, 2005 12:46 am
Re your note: There are dozens of state poetry societies; you can find them listed at the website for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, http://www.http://www.nfsps.com/
The state contests are generally nationwide (fees tend to be different for non-members); you don’t have to be a member to enter most of them, though sometimes there’s a “members only” category. Membership in any state society (you don’t have to live there to be a member) automatically makes you a member of NFSPS.
October 18th, 2005 8:57 am
I can imagine you were horrified then. It made me think of Rogue from the X-Men when her hair changed. Yes, I watch too many superhero movies w. my son.
Great poem.
October 18th, 2005 10:33 pm
I think I’d have a white streakish thing if I stopped dying my hair. But I’m not so brave. I’ve posted about this before. Forget how it looks, it makes me feel old. You strike me as the sort of person who would spend hours looking for a real shamrock, not inking one on your body. But then, looking at the above photo, who knows?
October 12th, 2007 12:31 am
I love the photo of you with the butterfly art painted on! It’s wonderful!
January 20th, 2008 1:01 pm
About 1 year ago my left eyebrow began turning white and still it so this day.
February 21st, 2011 12:44 pm
[…] 4. When I was 13 my hair went white in a streak of the left side of my head, including my left eyebrow. More HERE. […]
January 8th, 2015 1:15 am
[…] When I was 13, my hair, eyebrow and eyelashes on the left side of my head went completely white, a loss of pigment which I later learned was “segmental vitiligo.” I wonder if that’s what […]