8 No-hair Day
无发日
(By Jennifer Rosenfeld and Alison Lambert)
珍尼弗·罗森菲尔德和艾莉森·兰伯特
If you are turning 16, you stand in front of the mirror observing every inch of your face. You agonize that your nose is too big and you"re getting another pimple , your hair isn"t blonde, and that boy in your English class has not noticed you yet.
如果你快到16岁，站在镜子前仔细观察自己的脸。你发现自己的鼻子太大，脸上又长了一颗痘痘，头发不是金黄色的，英语课上的那个男孩还没注意到自己，这一切都会令你痛苦不已。
Alison never had those problems. Two years ago, she was a beautiful, popular and smart eleventh-grader, not to mention a varsity lacrosse goalie and an ocean lifeguard. With her tall, slender body, pool-blue eyes and thick blonde hair, she looked more like a swimsuit model than a high school student. But during that summer, something changed.
艾利森从不为这些问题烦恼。两年前，她是个漂亮的姑娘，上11年级，有人缘又聪明。此外，她还是学校曲棍球队守门员和海滩救生员。她身材高挑修长，湛蓝的眼睛，一头浓密的金发，看上去不像学生倒更像泳装模特。但是那年夏天，情况有些变化。
After a day of lifeguarding, Alison couldn"t wait to get home, rinse the saltwater out of her hair and comb through the tangles. She flipped her mane forward."Ali!"her mother cried,"What did you do?"She discovered a bare patch of skin on the top of her daughter"s scalp ." Did you shave it? Could someone else have done it while you were sleeping?" Quickly, they solved the mystery - Alison must have wrapped the elastic band too tightly around her ponytail. The incident was soon forgotten.
一次，艾利森当了一整天的救生员后，迫不及待地想回家冲掉发间咸咸的海水，再梳理一下纠结成团的头发。她把浓密的长发甩到了脸前。“艾利！”她母亲叫道：“你干什么了？”她发现女儿头顶秃了一块。“是你剃的吗？会不会是你睡觉时别人剃的？”很快她们解开了谜团——艾利森肯定是用皮筋把马尾辫扎得太紧。这件事很快就被淡忘了。
Three months later, another bald spot was found, then another. Soon, Alison"s scalp was dotted with peculiar quarter-sized bare patches. After diagnoses of "it"s just stress" with remedies of ointments , a specialist began to give injections to each spot. To mask her scalp, bloody from the shots, Alison was granted permission to wear a hat to school, normally a violation of the strict uniform code. Little strands of hair would push through the scabs , only to fall out two weeks later. Alison was suffering but nothing would stop it.
三个月之后，她头上又出现了一块秃斑，接着又是另外一块。艾利森的头皮很快布满了少见的25美分硬币大小的秃斑。诊断认为不过是“压力过大”，治疗办法是局部涂药膏，一位专科医生开始给她的每处秃斑注射药物。为了遮盖她因注射而血迹斑斑的头皮，艾利森获准可以戴着帽子上学——通常这可是违反学校严格的着装规定的。小撮头发会从痂疤里钻出来，但长两周之后就脱落了。艾利森很遭罪，但她的病无药可治。
Alison"s sunny spirit and supportive friends kept her going, but there were some low points. Like the time when her little sister came into her bedroom with a towel wrapped around her head to have her hair combed. When her mother untwisted the towel, Alison watched the thick hair bounce around her sister"s shoulders. Gripping all of her limp hair between two fingers, she burst into tears. It was the first time she had cried since the whole experience began.
艾利森性格开朗，朋友们也对她予以支持，这使她生活依旧，但有时还是会出现低谷。比如，一次妹妹头裹毛巾，走进她卧室梳头。当妈妈把毛巾解开时，艾利森看到一团浓密的头发在妹妹肩头荡来荡去。艾利森用两个指头紧紧夹住仅有的软塌塌的头发，眼泪夺眶而 出。这是她脱发以来第一次流泪。
As time went on a bandanna replaced the hat, which could no longer conceal her balding scalp. With only a small handful of strands left, the time had come to buy a wig . Instead of buying a long blonde one, pretending as though nothing had been lost, Alison bought a shoulder-length auburn one. Why not? People cut and dyed their hair all the time. With her new look, Alison"s confidence strengthened. But as the summer approached, Alison worried. If she couldn"t wear a wig in the water, how could she lifeguard again? "Why? Did you forget how to swim?" Her father asked. She got the message.
随着时间推移，她戴帽子也无法遮掩住变秃的头皮，只得改扎一块大手帕。后来当剩下一小把头发时，她不得不买了顶假发。不过艾利森并没有买顶长长的金色假发，假装不曾有过脱发，相反，她买了一个齐肩的赭色假发。为什么不呢？人们一直都在剪发和染发。艾利森的新形象增强了她的信心。但随着夏天的临近，艾利森变得焦虑不安。如果在水里不能戴假发，她可怎么再当救生员呢？“怎么了？难道你忘了如何游泳吗？”父亲问道。艾利森明白了父亲的意思。
After wearing an uncomfortable swimming cap for only one day, she mustered up the courage to go completely bald. Despite the impolite stares and comments - "Why do you crazy kids shave your heads?" - Alison adjusted to her new look.
她只有一天戴着一顶别扭的泳帽，范文，后来就鼓起勇气露出了光头。尽管有不礼貌的目光和诸如“你们这些疯狂的小孩为什么要剃光头？”之类的话语，艾利森还是适应了自己的新形象。
She arrived back at school that fall with no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, and with her wig put away somewhere in the back of her closet. As she had always planned, she would run for school president, changing her campaign speech only slightly. Presenting a slide show on many famous bald leaders like Gandhi, Alison had the students and faculty rolling in the aisles .
那年秋天返校时，艾利森光着头，眉毛和睫毛都掉光了，假发也被她塞到了衣橱深处。按照先前的计划，她仍参加了学生会主席的竞选，只对竞选演讲稿做了细微的调整。艾利森展示了一个幻灯片，里面有许多像甘地一样的著名领导人的秃顶照片，引得学生们和教职员工捧腹大笑。
In her first speech as the elected president, Alison talked of her condition, quite comfortably answering questions. Dressed in a T-shirt with the words "Bad Hair Day" printed across the front, she pointed to her shirt and said, "When most of you wake up in the morning and don"t like how you look, you may put on this T-shirt." Putting on another T-shirt over it, she continued, "When I wake up in the morning, I put on this one." It read, "No- Hair Day." Everybody cheered and applauded. And Alison, beautiful, popular and smart - not to mention varsity goalie, ocean lifeguard and now,school president - smiled back from the podium .
当选主席后，艾利森在首次讲话中说到了自己的病情，并对种种提问应答自如。她身穿一件胸前印有“糟糕发型日”一行字的T恤。她指着自己的T恤说：“当你们多数人早晨醒来不喜欢自己的样子时，不妨穿上这件T恤。”她又套上另一件T恤，接着说：“但早晨醒来，我会穿上这件。”上面印着：“无发日”。听到这儿，大家都欢呼鼓掌。聪明美丽又受人欢迎的艾利森——更别提她是校队守门员、海滩救生 员，如今又是学生会主席——在讲台上对此报以微笑。
