Do you think shaving your head makes you more or less of an individual?
I think the individuality question is contextual. In a situation like prison, concentration camps or even the military shaving the head can be a powerful component of robbing people of their sense of self image and individuality. But in those situations, shaving the head is involuntary and is only one part of taking away the sense of self.
Conversely, in modern American society, where the societal norm for men, and indeed the image of masculinity is a well groomed and styled full head of thick hair, then it is indeed an act of individuality to remove all the hair on your head (no matter how little may be left) and proudly and confidently be bald.
So it kind of goes both ways depending on the context of the head shave. I think the personal CHOICE to do it or not is the key part of it all. Nobody likes being told what they are going to look like. The power of personal expression in our looks is a mighty freedom and something that we don’t often think of, but we enjoy it every day.
Consider how much is tied up in the way we look. All of the ideas, judgments and stereotypes mentioned above in this thread are made not only from hairstyle, but from clothes, posture, etc. When someone feels like they are in a rut and in need of a radical personal change, they will often change their hair cut or color, buy some new clothes, get a tattoo; they change the way they look to change the way they feel.
I happen to be friends with a couple of pretty serious dread heads. They tell me that they see their dreads as being a part if their personal expression and when one of them chose to shave his head after being dready for over 20 years, he said he just needed to feel free. He said that everything about you is tied up in your dreads. All your thoughts grow from your head into your hair and so cutting off all his dreads and starting from scratch was an act of cleansing and release.
So I think it CAN make you more of an individual and it can be USED to make you feel like much less of one.
Maybe Vash will chime in on this topic. He's one of our kilt wearing bald guys.
http://www.myspace.com/v45h0n
As for Kilts.... kilts are fantastic. Comfortable, stylish and defiantly a little different in this day and age. Though they aren’t necessarily for everyone. Wearing a kilt, much like shaving your head, can garner you quite a bit of attention in public, and not everyone is ok with that.
I own 3 “traditional†Scottish Tartan kilts and 5 UtiliKilts (think kilts with pockets). (Outside of work) I think I have worn pants maybe 3 times in the past 3 years. I only wear my tartan kilts for formal dress occasions as they are expensive and have to be dry-cleaned. My UtiliKilts are very convenient, durable and easy to care for. I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about kilts and kilt wearing.
If you are looking for affordable tartan kilts I highly recommend Matthew Newsome
http://kilts.albanach.org/index.html . And I’d seriously suggest looking into UtiliKilts
http://www.utilikilts.com as a modern American alternative to a tartan kilt.