So, i'm a 23 year old from the UK. I decided to shave my head before the summer due to mother nature mostly.
I drove past my local barber shop 4 times (sorry environment) before finally thinking 'This is stupid, it's now or never' and taking the plunge, shaving my 'locks' off.
What amazed me most was my first reaction: I felt free. After weeks of going to clubs, and going into the toilets every 30 minutes to make sure every hair was in place, and refusing to have my photo taken, now it became a none issue. Yeah, take a photo, this is me.
Obviously there were a few reactions from friends and family. 'Wow you've shaved your head?' 'Where did your hair go!?!' all in good humour. I'd make some sly quip about 'what?! oh my god! where HAS it gone?!?!' etc. All was grand.
Some of my good lady friends commented at how much better I looked without my flop-over, i felt better than ever. A few sultry looks from the ladies and I knew that this was far from the 'end' that i dreaded before doing it (i'm sure you can relate guys).
Obviously, it wasn't all a bed of complimentary roses. The first negative response was some drunken guy who came up to the bar that I worked.
'What can I get you fella?'
"you have no hair"
'tell me something i don't know, what can i get you?'
"YOU have NO hair!''
Noticing that he'd come in for 4 days on his own in the middle of the busiest time of year, I decided not to go down the 'and you have no friends, probably because of your bad attitude' route.
Queue to today, and a guy i knew from work comes up to me in the local club and says 'hey! I didn't realise it was you standing there, i thought it was some 45 year old!'
Again, do I get offended? No, it's just something that happens. The most important phrase in my head was 'What matters is not what is said to you, but what you do about it.' So again, I just turn it into a joke, and pretty soon me and him are just laughing about it.
I just wanted to post this because shaving my head has changed my life for the better, no longer am I a slave to my genetics. I see some people so hung up on other people's opinions of them that they do the dreaded combover/bozo ring. You know what it is guys, we tend to focus on the negative comments instead of the good. We tend to let the littlest comment stay with us, but we let the good ones that come our way float away down the river. I just want to leave you with two messages:
1) It doesn't matter what somebody else says, it's how you react that defines you. You don't need to answer to anyone except yourself, so even when other people fail you, don't fail yourself!
2) Stop focusing on the little things. At worst, weigh up the good and the bad with equal measure, and if you can, give the good the extra weight it deserves, because it's harder for someone to say something nice than say something otherwise.
And for any of you STILL sitting on the fence. Grab your shaver/razor and go to TOWN on that dome, I promise you won't regret it.
Short Version: Sometimes people say bad things: you'll get over it, wuss.
