Being Bald

    They say, if a man is bald in the front, he is a thinker.  If he is bald in the back he is a lover.  If he is bald in the front and the back, he thinks he’s a lover.  Lucky me.  

    For all of my conscious life, I have admired and envied males who had good hair.  My father and my brothers all had great hair.  It was straight, thick, and orderly.  During the long hair era of my youth, I embraced the fashion.  I grew my hair long, and had run-ins with the school authorities because of it, but my hair was never straight and good, mine was always wavy, with curls that flipped up at the ends, and difficult to manage.  I hated it, and did what I could to make it straighter with constant washing and blow drying, I even borrowed my mother’s iron to make it straighter, but I learned that its always an uphill fight to try to overcome nature.

    Then around the age of twenty, fate dealt me a real ego shattering blow--baldness.  For someone who loves hair so much, it was a condition far more hateful than wavy hair, but while I didn’t like, I accepted my destiny.  

    I am a strong believer in being up front and honest, so I don’t do anything to hide my hair-challenged condition.  Some men do the comb-over thing to hide it, others wear a cap all of the time to cover it up, others with lots of vanity and money have hair transplants done, but I just put it out there--here I am, this is me.

    I always remember a guy at work, who always wore a ball cap, both outside and in the office.  I don’t remember what happened on that particular day when I saw him without it, but I was shocked to discover that he was balder than I was.  I never want to have that shocking effect on others, so I always try to show my bald head from the very beginning, when I am introduced to someone I don’t know.

    In the winter, if I am wearing a hat during an introduction, I always try to nonchalantly take it off so they see what I really look like.  Of course, this has some disadvantages too, if they always see you bald, then later see you on the street with a hat, they might not recognize you without all that extra skin showing.

    While I would really prefer to have a nice head of hair, I accept myself as I am and I am happy to be me.  I feel lucky, so many people have to live their lives dealing with problems that really have consequences.

Visit my website to see all of my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca