Trissalicious

Trissalicious then

When I was growing up, my idea of beauty was to have long healthy hair. It must have been a case of wanting what I didn’t have because for as long as I can remember, I grew up with short hair. When I asked my Mom if I could grow out my hair, she said that it would look messy and be hard to manage. I still remember one day, (I still had short hair at this time), out of nowhere I found ONE strand of shoulder length hair out of my boyish hairstyle. I had no idea where it came from but I recall just stroking that one strand of hair for the whole day. “If only the rest of my hair would catch up!”, I thought. You can’t imagine my disappointment when at the end of the day, that one strand finally fell (maybe from over touching?)

In any case, when I was old enough to decide that my Mom couldn’t stop me from growing my hair, I vowed never to cut it. Through the years, I would break that vow and each and every time, I would regret it. I always felt that I looked too much like a boy and my roundish face wasn’t suited for short hair.

So what changed? A few years ago I read somewhere about a program to donate hair so that wigs could be created for cancer patients. You see, when I was six, my Mom was diagnosed with cancer. She was given six months to live. One of the first things that entered her mind was that if she died, she hoped that my Dad would marry one of her unmarried sisters so that he would someone to take care of him. That’s the kind of person she has always been – thinking about others before herself. My Mom was also refused to let cancer beat her. She was so tough that she would even drive herself to chemo sessions! One time I asked her, what was the hardest part of cancer. She said it wasn’t the chemo, nor was it that she had a mastectomy. She said it was losing all her hair. Many years later, my Mom is thankfully still alive and kicking… oops, make that, alive and dancing!

I also remember my mother in law who unfortunately passed away from cancer a year ago. She was also another generous person who when I asked how she was doing she would always say to please take care of her son (my husband). She had battled with the disease for a few years and over time we noticed that less and less she felt like going out and socializing. I think part of it was because she had also lost her hair and was self conscious of this.

For a girl, losing one’s hair can be a confronting experience. It can make you lose your self esteem.

As much as I loved having long hair, I wanted more to be able to do one little act to tell everyone who may be suffering from cancer and losing their hair that there are people who care. I care. It’s also my small way of acknowledging and supporting people like my Mom and Mom in law who have had cancer. I’ll be the first to admit, there were times, in particular when I saw the hairdresser’s scissors, that I wanted to chicken out. But, I hope by my writing about this, there are others who are inspired to show they care and donate their hair.

Pantene have a program called Beautiful Lengths that provide free real hair wigs to women who have lost their hair through cancer treatment. At a minimum hair must be 20 cm long and cannot be dyed, bleached or chemically treated. More information can be found on their website.

So this is me today, and I’m simply loving my new look. This is one time I’ve had no regrets about having short hair.

Trissalicious now

Short recipe for this post. My husband and I have been experimenting on a spicy scallop recipe on the back of a new recipe book I purchased a few weeks ago called Hashi. The original recipe requires you to make your own mayonnaise and serve the spicy scallops atop a bed of rice. I’ve adapted the recipe for a much more simple, yet delicious approach.

Easy Spicy Scallops

Easy Spicy Scallops

Serves 6

• 150 grams fresh scallop meat
• 100 grams Japanese mayonnaise (kewpie)
• 15 grams chili sauce (i.e. lee kum kee garlic chili sauce or ling ham)
• 1/2 nori sheet, cut into little pieces
• 2 tablespoons flying fish roe

1. Spray the scallop shells with a little cooking oil. Cut the scallop meat into 1 cm sized pieces (usually quartering them will be enough) and lay them on top of the scallop shells.
2. Mix the Japanese mayonnaise and chili sauce together and set aside. Top the scallops with a few nori pieces and some of the flying fish roe.
3. Spread some of the Japanese mayo mixture over the scallops and either grill the scallops in the oven or blow torch the scallops until the mayonnaise turns golden brown.

Easy Spicy Scallops