Ezequiel Colmenero-Acevedo

Introduction.

I love being bald. This is not a newfound love or a statement of acceptance of an ultimate fate. It is a fact resulting from love at first sight, and at an early age.

I was only 12 years old the first time I shaved my head completely. From that moment I knew that I wanted to be bald. In fact I never liked my hair, I found it to be cumbersome and disrupting. Despite my mother’s tears upon seeing me bald, I was convinced that not having hair on top of my head was much more comfortable than having to deal with the disturbing threads coming out of my scalp.

At that time in my own culture and family, bald boys were usually seen as related to orphanages, as in Mexico, poor orphans were shaved as a way to keep them clean without showering. In consequence, I received at that time, a lot of comments on how I looked as an orphan for being shaved clean. 

Despite the cultural taboo against seeing a bald boy, I used to shave my head at least once a year – during the warmer months usually – , which often resulted in people expressing their opinion against that, and I am talking both family and friends.

At around 18 years old, a big stain appeared on my scalp, and it appeared from one year to the next. One day I shaved my head and I had the stain there, which was not there the previous year. It used to look like a bit birthmark. I remained with it for about 10 years.

I started balding heavily at 22, I wanted to remain shaved because I was developing an asymmetric baldness. On the other hand, the birthmark caused a bad reaction by some people, when I was shaved. For this reason I spent many years without shaving my head, until 28 years old when I decided that my baldness was utterly ridiculous, as my forehead was already extending to the top of my head!

At 28 I finally had the stain removed, in which resulted to be a “sebaceous nevus”, a kind of benign tumor in the scalp. That part of the skin was removed and I remained with a very nice scar on my head. From that day I decided to never grow my hair again, as it was not only the pathetic partial baldness, but also now I could sport a magnificent scar, to which I linked a whole collection of explanations whenever people asked for the scar. One day the scar was the result of riding the bicycle without a helmet, some other day it was the result of a massive brawl in a pub.

Baldness is bliss.

Baldness is bliss. I always wanted to be bald so when I finally decided not to grow hair ever again, it was not an exercise of acceptance, but an achievement of my personal identity and one of the greatest expressions of a standard of self-image I always wished for. After that moment, I realised the many advantages that we bald men get, and some disadvantages.

Among the advantages of being bald in my experience are:

• You save a lot of money on barbers and hairstylists. At the beginning, it is tempting to go to a barber to get you well shaved, but soon you realise that you can shave in the shower by yourself, even you learn to do it without the need of a mirror, only using the tactile feeling in the hand to detect where you should pass the razor.
• Wearing hats and helmets is way more convenient. It is not only more comfortable wearing hats and helmets when you do not have the potentially warming effect of a layer of hair, but also any head wear would fit much better, and you cannot avoid wearing something on the head with the pretext of “it ruins my haircut”.
• It is perfect for warmer weather. I perceive that I shave a lot less now that I shave daily.
• You save a lot of time. OK, shaving could take some time in the shower, but at least you do not need to spend a lot of time creating your perfect hairstyle. Additionally, you are less likely to be rearranging your hair whenever you have a mirror, so you can focus on more important things on life than paying too much attention to your hair.
• You look younger. Lets face it, two of the most indistinguishable traits of an old man are balding and white hairs. But balding is not the same as being well and fully shaved, because you become a shiny ball that does not show clear signs of aging. People would have problems guessing you real age.
• You are perceived as more masculine. And this was shocking for me, people started to describe me as looking manly and having a stronger presence when fully shaved. Many women and men would feel attracted to bald men. Interestingly, my dating rating skyrocketed thanks to my daily shave… but my scar got a lot of attention too I must say.
• You are perceived as more confident. Bald men are perceived as more confident than those that are balding and hold with desperation to their falling hair. In a way, shaving your head is a statement, one that expressed that you are not to fight against your own nature, but to embrace it.

I must acknowledge, there are some disadvantages to being bald, like:

• Cold weather. At the beginning is hard to go out in really cold weather without a proper head wear. Personally I can withstand up to -5 Celsius without needing to cover my head, any colder than that I would get a headache if I am not wearing a proper winter cap. Other people might be much more susceptible to cold weather in their scalp.
• You should shave almost daily to keep the look. And shaving could take some additional time in the shower, but the more you do it the faster you would get. Some really enjoy the process, personally I would like to remain 100% bald without shaving. That is the origin of this article.

Internet algorithms.

I have been shaving my head almost daily for 10 years now. I do it without seeing, just feeling the hair parts with my fingers. I use a Gillette razor with 5 blades and some shaving foam. I have not cut my skin in the last 7 years, so I am a master of the trait already.

Despite my experience, the other day it came to mi mind the idea that it would be great if I could forget of shaving and could remain fully bald forever.

Following my idea, I researched on the Internet about possible treatments that would definitely stop the growth of my hair. I thought, maybe science is so advanced that I could apply something on my scalp, and I could remain forever bald and shiny.

After many searches I gave up, as I was obtaining only results to exactly the opposite thing that I wanted. Hundreds of results came of treatments and products that promised to stop hair loss or even recovery of lost hair. Those products I found them offensive and even heresy, for the way I see baldness!!

An industry of desperate men.

The Internet algorithms works in a way that when the user look for something specific, publicity would turn to show him more about his recent search. Consequently, after searching of ways to become completely and permanently bald, those algorithms interpreted that I wanted to avoid being bald!

From the day of my Internet search and for days I would be receiving tons of publicity about products and treatments that, in one way or another, are attractive to men that do not want to be bald, or they want to be perceived as not-balding. There is a whole industry related to that intention, and clearly it is based on the insecurity of such men. These men are desperate, they appear to be ready to pay any price in money and in consequence, to keep their hairy look.

Balding is a natural process for many males, but many cannot accept it, maybe they perceive it as a loss of youth, or their bald look is incompatible with their personal image of themselves. I assume that this is fundamentally lack of confidence, where men do not feel that they would be able to continue their usual life without hair on top of their heads.

After a few days of watching the anti-baldness advertisement, I realised that I could make a classification of different methods and products in that industry, which roughly falls into the following list:

1. Products that claim to stop hair loss. Either with pills or liquids applied directly to the scalp, these products claim that you would not lose any more hair.
2. Products that claim to regrow lost hair. Mostly using pills, but some are applied topically.
3. Products that claim to make thin hair become thick again. Both topics and swollen, they do not regrow lost hair but makes thinning hair to become thicker again.
4. Treatments of hair transplant. This one looks ugly, is basically inserting hair in the follicles directly. It is surely painful.
5. Scalp tattooing. This one is interesting, as it is for fully bald men that want to see as they shaved or trimmed their hair, is like they accept some degree of baldness, but they want to look as still being able to grow hair.

Some of these treatments require a long-time commitment, or even a for-life continuity of the treatment as to avoid hair loss permanently. One can think on the economic consequences of be paying the treatments for long term and the health consequences of taking pills for years. Surely is a lot easier just to accept and embrace baldness.

Embracing baldness.

I have known a fair number of men that at different stages of their lives, have battled baldness, all of them ended losing the fight and embracing their shinny head. These men needed to realise that their fight was against themselves and their self-acceptance, not against baldness or against nature.

My brother started losing his hair when he was about 30 years old, when he was younger, he used to sport a good amount of curly black hair of which he was proud of. In his early 30’s he was having trouble accepting it. One day I took a photo of him from behind, I sent it to him. The image showed a big hole in his back-head hair. He was strongly upset and mad at me, he was also offended and denial of his baldness. I came to know that he started using several shampoos that were supposed to stop hair loss. After a few years and the advanced baldness, he came to his senses and started shaving it also. It was a great victory for self-acceptance.

The action I did to my brother, taking a photograph or their baldness, I made it to other three men in different places and times. All of them hated me for doing it, as they were not completely aware of their reality. One of them I found him sobbing in a corner, crying, and holding his mobile phone with the portrait of his balding scalp I had sent him earlier.

Another man I knew, who was extremely bald, I am talking like he had no hair in about 80% percent of his head, used to use a wig. When I confronted him about his wig being a little different colour to his real hair in the rear parts of his head, he told me that as a businessman, he could not afford to look older. Since then, I have read some articles that claim than in business, shaving hair is a good sense, as it might project strength and confidence.

Conclusion.

Baldness is a traumatic experience for many men, for me it was a success in life, a dream come true. But for most other men, their might have trouble accepting the fact that their image would change. The unfortunate part about it is that they fuel an industry that profits from their lack of confidence and self-acceptance. They spend millions in trying to stop their hair loss or recover their already lost hairs. At the end they all need to accept, sooner or later, that baldness is not a problem, and only then they would grow as men and save a lot of money.

On my part, I have since discovered that there are a few men that think like me, some of them have used permanent epilation, mostly waxing or laser epilation. These procedures look painful and expensive, but I might consider them if they are effectively permanent. Meanwhile I would have to endure watching Internet publicity about fighting hair loss, which is something almost offensive for me. Embrace the bald look men!!