Bald is Beautiful

I knew at a young age that I wouldn't be growing old with my hair. I believe the realization came in 10th grade biology class when we learned that the 'baldness' gene was passed down from your mothers father. I pictured my grandfathers shiny head and remembered hearing that he got that way at a young age. I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'd be bald by the time I hit 30 and there was nothing I could do about it.

I've never had all that great of hair so it wasn't like I had a lot to lose out on. It's very fine fair and pretty thin to start with, tough to do anything with. It was a slow progression and I didn't really notice at first. My first signs were the shower drain seeming to plug up with hair after just a few days. I didn't notice anything in the mirror and after a month or so my drain wouldn't be plugging up anymore; allowing me to forget all about it and convince myself that I wasn't quite losing my hair yet. Only to have the same thing happen again in 6 months. I really noticed something was going on when I'd look at pictures just a few years old where it was plain to see I once had a lot more hair then I currently had on top of my head. Thankfully I'd been preparing for this so it was no great shock, though still a little disheartening.

Over the next few years I slowly noticed my hair getting thinner and thinner as my hair line went farther and farther back. A single drop of water falling on my head would go straight through to the scalp and then run down my forehead instead of being soaked up by hair. When I got out of the shower I could really see how little hair I actually had when it was plastered to my head. I found that keeping it cut short not only made it easier to take care of but actually seemed to make it look better. The longer it got the stringier it would get, which just made me look like I was trying to cover something up.

A couple days before I left on my trip I had my hair cut nice and short; short hair is a must have when you sleep in your car and don't shower for days on end. It's now been over 2 months and it was getting longer then I liked. I asked around for places to get a hair cut but an idea kept lingering in the back of my head, haircuts cost money and I was just fighting the inevitable; so I decided to just give into mother nature. I grabbed my clippers and commandeered Tim to shave me as close as he could get; of course we had to have a little fun with it in the process.

I was kinda worried about how I'd look when it was all said and done. Sometimes honkies look pretty good with shaved heads and other times it's a disaster; I didn't know what to expect. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised when it was all over with; I don't think I look half bad with a shaved head. We'll see how the unsuspecting public reacts tomorrow when I show myself in broad daylight.

Click on one of the pictures in this post to be taken to a Flickr photo set showing the whole process beginning to end.