In my case - a LOT more than 30 days!
I have never liked the way I look. I have avoided photographs all of my life. In fact, even though I spent 16 years in the Navy, and retired from the Navy, I only know of two or three photos of me in a uniform.
One thing I did really think looked cool, however, was my "World's Greatest High, Tight and Brutal Horseshoe Flattop" haircut
I thought that my Flattop was really badass! And it still looked "O.K" until 2015. In 2016 I got very ill with what was to be the first of three unrelated, but life threatening infections. They had to put a port into me each time and pump antibitics, steroids, and morphine into me every day for weeks. The cocktail made my hair fall out. When it grew back it was thin and wispy, and worse - it had no color; it was the color of a dead mouse. And to make matters worse, the stark flattness of the top is like a neon sign which exposes my crooked face and head.
My right orbit (eye socket) sits lower in my head/face as a result of an incident in my childhood in which I wound up with a broken face. The flattop makes this a bit more noticeable. An incident that happened to me when I was a brand new Ensign gave me cracked C3 vertebrae and destroyed to of my cervical discs. Ihis set off a three decade degeneration of my cervical vertebrae. I have endured two surgeries (fusions with interbody transplants) to stabilize this and I have experienced a lifetime of pain because of this, but few people would have noticed it until the last 18 months. About 24 months ago, unbeknownst to me, my C5 Vertebra collapesed and fell into my C6 in an uncontrolled fusion. The facet joints on the left side of C5, C6, and C& have also collapsed. The C6 is sliding off of the C7 and the C3 is falling off the front of the C4. So now my head is drooping off of the front of my body and my chin is pointing down and to the right. My entire head is "going down at the bow and listing to Starboard"! Ha Ha! So, if I grow any hair, especially a flattop, this just make the crooked head much more noticeable! It is really better to keep it shaven.
Off and on through the years I had shaved my head for a variety of fund-raisers, so it wasn't a crushing blow when I had to shave it off when I was sick. But it has been a different story since I got sick. Now, when I tried to grow it back I would also have to color it. And I really hated doing that. So, for the majority of the last two years it has been shaved.
I like the clean feeling of a shaved head; but I have never felt that it looked good on me; I have always thought of myself as "BBC" and only "Semi-Sly. But for almost all of the last year I have remained shaven. And I don't even like to shave my own head! I go to the Barber twice a week.
But yesterday, I had some minor day surgery - cataract removal in my right eye. Even though it was not medically necessary, the hospital absolutely insisted that I remove all of my piercings. I had 00 Gauge tunnel in both earlobes, two gold rings in the lower helix of my left ear, and two heavy stainless steel rings through the cartilage in the upper helix of my left ear. (I got really crazy when I hit 58!!!). I had also trimmed my goatee down to mere stubble because I cannot shower or wash my face for several days.
When the surgery was over and I was getting dressed in my little Prep room I saw myself
in the mirror - something I have always avoided doing! And something in me said; "You are not dead yet - you don't look so bad as a bald man - in fact, you look just a bit "badass" clean shave and and without the tunnels and rings".
So, it has taken me several years, but just maybe I am getting used to this. I had better get used to it, there isn't much choice and I don't have that much time left anyway! Ha Ha!