Thoughts on Being Bald

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I decided to do something I was planning on doing for a long time . . . shaving my head.

Not a stylistic cut, not most of the hair ... all of it.

 

One of the last pictures I took when I still had hair on my head.

There were several reasons why I chopped off all of my hair.  I am not of the greatest health, and people on my father's side of the family typically have very, very thin hair.  I did not inherit my mother's thick curls, so I'm stuck with thin hair.  I continuously dyed my hair for about three years, and I was tired of having to deal with the roots.  There wasn't a considerable amount of damage to my hair as I take considerable care with it, however, it didn't hurt to have a fresh start.  I also express myself as an androgyne, and not having hair is about as unisex as you can get (besides the Mohawk-thingy that I was previously sporting).

Seeing all of the hair fall to the floor as the electric razor buzzed was a very freeing feeling.  A little dizzying, too.  No longer having hair to run your fingers through is a bizarre sensation to experience, something I sometimes dubbed to my friends as "phantom hair."  I might run or do other exercises and anticipate hair hitting the back of my neck or sweaty tendrils sticking to my face ... but no, nothing.

 Upon seeing my new "hairstyle" (or lack of), my Spanish IV teacher told the class that she would love to shave off all of her hair at some point, and feels like it's an experience everyone should go through.  While many might not agree with her, I would definitely say being bald turned out to be a great experience.

There are kids at school that would constantly ask me, "What did you do to your hair?" or "Why'd you shave of all of your hair?"  There would be rumors floating around about me going through chemotherapy or that I had a "nervous breakdown and pulled a Britney Spears" (my favorite rumor).  But the most interesting thing would have to be the amount of times someone would ask, "Why did you do that [cut off your hair]?" and I would reply with, "Because I wanted to."  And that reply alone was not good enough for them, like there needed to be some profound reasoning behind shaving off all of the hair on my head.

 

Recent picture.  Hair is starting to grow back.

It's been weeks now and there's actually a considerable amount of fuzz on the top of my head.  I'm not sure if I want to shave it all off again, or wait until the weather gets warming in my region.

All in all, it's certainly been an interesting experience, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again in the future.

-- Klaude