Whose Head is That?

My hair was really long and I decided to get it cut. I anguished over this decision for a while because I kind of like the way that my hair has waves and body when it is longer. I think that it is nice and no I am not a metro-sexual by any means, I just like my hair.

I can always tell when it is getting time for a cut and that is when I put a ball cap on my head and there are shocks of curls that jut out near my ears. It looks like there is a bird under the hat and its wings are shooting out from under it.

Well, so there I was at the stylists (fancy name for a barber-oh and BTW I always have a woman cut my hair. I mean come on! I would rather have a woman running her hands through my hair than a man). OK, so I am at the stylist's getting my locks chopped when she does the obligatory mirror routine. You know, when she's finished and picks up a smaller mirror and stands behind you to show you its reflection into the enormo-mirror right in front of you.

I never know what to say then, other than "That'll do stylist. That'll do." Well she goes into her routine (which is sim-ya-lar to Sally Rand) and I am about to tell her that it will do when I notice a peculiarity in her mirror which is showing the crown of my head. I catch a glimpse of scalp! It was there as plain as plain could be: a bald spot, or to be more correct-a BALDING spot.

The sight freaked me out. Not because I am afraid to go bald or that I am aging gracefully. It freaked me out because I had not clue whatsoever that I was losing any hair anywhere! My hairline is not receding and I do not see clumps of hair in the drain after I have showered. So where has it gone?!

I really don't want to go bald but I cannot stop the process. And I am not one who will fight it with Rogaine, comb-overs, or toupees. If I go bald I go bald-even though I don't believe that I have a head that is shaped for baldness, but again that is beyond my control. I will embrace my baldness with pride and dignity. There it is in print. I WILL ACCEPT MY BALDNESS, if and when it comes.

I am fine with my grayness. I kind of dig my Salt-n-Pepa look to my hair-Oh Baby, Baby! I even was tolerant of that fact that my grayness is not just bound to my head. I have gray in my beard and moustache. I have seen gray underarm hair. Gray nostril hair. A gray chest hair or 5. Gray eyebrow hair, and yes dear reader a gray hair even there...on my toes. Where did you think that I was going to say? Well there too, happy?

My grayness and its encroachment into my life, and the way that I have dealt with it has led me to my current harmony with my impending baldness. You see I fought the good fight against graying. I plucked, cut and nipped any I could find but they always came back, and that with a vengeance. I even did the coloring thing with my beard and stache. It didn't look natural and I realized that I was engaged in a losing war. I knew that I would waste millions of dollars, years of my life, and needless worry to remove the gray.

Then one day, thumbing through the Good Book, that's the Bible for you heathens, I found the following passage: "Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life."-Proverbs 16:31. OK, so I might not be as righteous as I should be but the passage made me realize that there are just some things in life that you can't change as much as you might want to and that you have to accept them. So I accepted the Graying of Me, and I will also accept my balding. So let it be written, so let it be done!

Be happy with who you are!
MAC