"His not-abundant confidence was further sapped by the sudden loss of his hair, starting in his teens. [Sir Patrick] Stewart employed a series of hats, comb-overs, and simply walking with his head down to avoid detection. "Wind was a nightmare," he remembers.
Then a pal did an intervention. Stewart had a Hungarian director friend who invited him for lunch one day. After eating, the Hungarian and his wife disappeared into the kitchen. They emerged with scissors, and the Hungarian placed Stewart in a bear hug while his wife snipped off his remaining wisps of hair.
"My friend took my shoulders in his hands and yelled, 'No more hiding!'",
"Captain Fantastic", (Article about Patrick Stewart), Mens Journal June 2014
In our modern culture, I sometimes shake my head, (my smoothly shaven chrome-dome), at the amount of money, time, and emotion expended by the men of our times.... in order to retain some vestige of a full head of hair.
Now, I have always been of the mind that this is a wide, wide world, with lots of people in it... and room for all kinds of tastes, interests, etc... if someone wants to spend their hard-earned money on Rogaine, or implants, or toupees... who am I to judge? And yet....
When I read this article in Men's Journal, about the utterly magnetic Sir Patrick Stewart, I felt a desire to write about this incident from his early years, and how perfectly it captured my feelings on male baldness, and to share that to my brethren of the Human Race.
I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. (Psalm 139.14, HCSB)
Here's a news flash: you were designed... your incredible special person created by a loving God, your inevitable, inexorable code laid out in double-helical artistry that resulted in a perfectly unique masterpiece. And guess what? That includes your head, and every single follicle thereupon....
Like Sir Patrick, my hair began its Exodus while I still had a "1" at the beginning of my age. I often jokingly relate one of my favorite anecdotes about how I knew the moment of the beginning of the end: when the smoking-hot hairstylist at the hip hair place in Austin told the cashier to charge me half-price because the cut didn't take very long.... (OUCH). Yes, I struggled with it at first, but before long the ethos expressed in Psalms sank in... and I realized that I was sculpted this way.
So, I make a call to all the would-be William Shatners of the world... look at your head... ixnay the ug-ray, and love yourself. As you were made.
But... (shout-out to Dr. Wayne Braudrick here).. in that Gordon Gekko voice of yours... you say "Men without good hair won't succeed in our society". To wit:
- It will hurt my love life: Bullocks. If the woman you woo won't love you without hair, move on and find one who will. You want a mate/lover/SO who likes you for WHO YOU ARE. Women respond to confidence. Trust me on this.
- It will impede my career advancement: I will grant that this is a possibility... but the business world also sees and knows when a man is working too hard to put back what's not there... everyone knows.... just so you know.
- A lack of hair means ridicule: Bullocks again. The world is changing, and bald is the new sexy. For whatever it's worth, the tide of popular culture is turning, and the bald male celebrities are not seeing their "Q" ratings suffer... not like they used to...
When it boils down to it, gentlemen... confidence is sexy.
Accept and like yourself... exactly like you were made.
Hold your bald(ing) head high.
Embrace the way you were lovingly crafted.
No more hiding!
