I got a great compliment yesterday. I didn't shave my head for years partly because I had two girlfriends during a five year period that asked me specifically not to. I never asked, they just both said: "Hey, never shave your head, okay?" so I thought they must know something more than I did about how I would look with my head shaved. But I saw the one from a few years ago yesterday, we had dated for three years, and I was expecting her to go "oh god no, what did you do!? I told you not to!" She's not the type to give compliments she doesn't mean or to be nice for the sake of being nice. But she saw me and said, "Oh my god. You look so posh and classy and cool. And...and... it's probably inappropriate for me to say this but... REALLY sexy. And I was praying you'd grow a beard like that for years. You look like a man, in the best possible way. You look so much younger and, honestly, this is the sexiest you've looked since I met you. Please please keep this look. Please don't change this look." It crossed the line from compliment to like... she was moved. lol. Given the nature of our relationship, I know she'd tell me the truth, and given her past attraction to me, sexy means sexy. So at day 20 I'm feeling pretty good about the new look.

The beard is coming in really great I think. It's red in the sunlight, it stopped itching, and it's filling in. I've stopped looking in the mirror all the time trying to gauge whether or not my head is huge. Shaving my head is going much quicker and has gotten to be sort of pleasant to do and no razor burn or cutting myself. And I think the best sign of all... for the first week after I shaved people kept telling me to smile, but it felt weird to smile. When I looked in the mirror and smiled I looked so weird to myself. Mean looked fine. Smile looked weird. Now I look in the mirror and when I smile I see my same happy self. My eyes look good with my beard. I know it sounds strange, but for some reason when I first shaved my head I felt like I no longer had access to my full range of facial expressions? And as an actor and a teacher up in front of people all the time, that was worrisome to me. But now my expressions look much more natural to myself, and... I look more vibrant to myself than I did before I shaved. The head hair didn't really have pop or luster... but my beard sparkles.

Anyway, 10 more days, but I'm already thinking this is my look. (Oh, and one of my students shook his head and said, "man I wish I could shave off MY hair. But I couldn't pull it off. Dr. V pulls off EVERYTHING.")