A Short Post on Baldness

It is hard to describe what being bald is like. I mean, at once it is the thing people identify you by but you rarely spend much time looking at yourself. That said, you are always hyperaware of it, having to plan accordingly at all times because you lack something others take for granted.

Imagine this: you are on Facebook and come to the post of a friend who has hit some kind of life milestone, be it a marriage, divorce, graduation, matriculation, beating cancer...whatever. They have gone out and, in order to express themselves, they have gotten a haircut to reflect the inner joy/turmoil/ennui/ whatever they have been feeling but now are able to do so externally. Maybe it's a bob or a mohawk or some other fancy do. Either way, it is an expression of who they are in that moment, stronger because they have survived.

In short, baldness fucks you up. Any attempt at vanity is quickly thwarted because the face you present to the world is always usurped by this empty space. And that's just how you feel when bald: empty.

Yes, baldness has changed. Bruce Willis got more badass as he got balder. Jason Stathem made bald cool as well. Women who lose their hair due to cancer proudly sport their scalp for the world. All that is incredible and I am happy there is that touch of support in a group sense. However, I think those things are about pride and regular, boring, non-gun-wielding, non-cancer-fighting baldness is hollow and just flat out devastating.

I am humored by monks who shave their heads hoping to ease themselves from vanity, to separate themselves from all attachments. Great. Good for them. Their hair will grow back for the wanting of it so basically they can go fuck themselves.