So, a couple weeks ago I decided I had enough of the receding hairline thing. I also woke up that Saturday and looked in the mirror and decided I didn’t like to look like Crusty the Clown. When hair thins, it doesn’t have fellow hairs to hang on to and cling to. Lonely hairs stand out, stand up, and wave about. It’s not pretty.
And I got tired of the wind, having to carry a comb everywhere, and just generally tired of managing dying hair.
So, I shaved. Not all the way, just enough to feel like I was shaved. I cut myself a little and it made me think that I should get a Wahl beard trimmer for next time. I left a wee little bit of hair behind. I wasn’t totally serious about baldness yet—besides, it’s still cold here in Chicago. I need a little bit of warmth left. Shaving For Bald Men can be hard and that is what has kept me from shaving all my hair off.
A week later, AJ followed suit.
“Dad, I like your hair.”
“Really? Do you want me to shave your head?”
Now, notice how quickly the conversation went from AJ just generally appreciating how “crunchy” my hair feels, to me offering to lop off his mane. My wife is in the corner shaking her head.
“Sure!”
After talking it over with me, and with plenty of rounds of me saying, “But it’s just hair. It’ll grow back. He’ll be in soccer this summer, he’ll need to keep cool.” And so on. She relented. The “It’s just hair, it’ll grow back” argument helped. Mostly, she just didn’t want hair to be the battlefield she died on.
That’ll probably be bows and arrows or target pistols or something silly like that.
Click the picture to see our glorious baldness!
Ellie’s Tresses, if you’re wondering, are still intact.
[tags]BlogRodent, kids, photography, bald, shaved, hairless[/tags]
As a fellow newbie baldie, I salute you!
If you haven’t checked it yet, http://www.headshaver.org/ has some very helpful info.
Thanks for the cameraderie!
I don’t know if bald is beautiful in my case (probably isn’t, just ought to get that out there right now), but it is certainly more convenient.
Thanks for the site recommendation. I found their blog to be intersting, too: Off the top.
Rich
BlogRodent
I don’t shave my head for the same reasons you don’t bulldoze the ancient ruins of a great civilization — the crumbling remains remind you that once something great lived there.
My husband is a Barber. One of his pet-peeves is the bald mans comb over. Men do not realize that it makes them look older to do the comb over, comb sideways and backwards thing. We have a friend @42yrs. He was doing the comb over thing for years. He works with the Drama Team and Youth at church all the time (Trying to relive his lost youth) but he recently came to my husband’s shop at lunch break because the men he works with bet him he would not cut his hair. He did and he looked great. I can’t tell you how much better it made him feel about himself when he got lots of positive comments. I Congratulate you for letting your son see that there is more to life than appearance. He is able to now know its ok to be free and different. GOOD FOR YOU!!
Katherine, thanks for the encouragement.
For now, though, my son has elected to let his hair grow back out, and I’m totally okay with that.
I have planted the seed, however!
Rich
BlogRodent