Hair today

When did it become chic to be bald? As someone who now sports a shiny dome, rather than a heavy thatch of curls I haven’t been able to help but notice there are a lot more bald guys around. I admit there are a lot of guys who just shave their heads, but I am noticing that more men, and more young men are loosing their hair.

While both of my brothers have classic male pattern baldness, I have overall thinning hair. What this means is that if I didn’t shave in the morning what I would wind up with is the type of hair that regardless of length would give the most casual observer a slightly obscured view of my scalp. It lacks the pathetic nature of the comb over, but really isn’t any more attractive. So every morning I get out the Norelco and do my hair. It’s a pragmatic approach to dealing with the problem and fortunately I don’t have a misshapen head, so it doesn’t look that bad.

What puzzles me is why all of the escapees from Hair Club for Men? Come on, there has always been a small portion of the gay population who’ve sported a gleaming pate, and it works. But until the past few years there has been a much larger population of men out there that has been willing to do anything, no matter how humiliating, to have a “natural looking” head of hair. They were fooling no one but themselves, but it was pretty harmless and allowed me and some of my friends to play such fun games as spot the worst toupee of the day or how much has he spent so far on hair plugs? It's not just me thinking this either. I did a quick poll among friends and they all remarked after I pointed out the chrome dome phenomena to them that they are not seeing as much advertisement for weaves or hair transplants.

The death of the rug shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. I think that a good toupee is an oxymoron. However it’s amazing what people can convince themselves of. SUV’s are safe and standardized testing in schools improves the quality of education are just a couple. If someone wants to think that no one can tell that the dead raccoon they have tied to their head isn't their own hair, there is no way they are going to be convinced otherwise. So why the sudden group urge to go natural?

I am leaning towards the idea that it was Capt. Picard. Let’s face it, if anyone could convince you that some short, bald, older man can be a hotty, Patrick Stewart is that man.

The problem with this theory is that the show has been off the air for 10 years. Did it take that long for the idea to trickle down, or is it that a new generation of men had to see Jean-Luc in syndication before they threw off the shackles of the personal care industry and decided to bare it all. I’m going to have to do some more research into the phenomena and get back to you.

In the mean time I’m going to head down the street to my favorite taqueria, El Pelon. You know, they really should give discounts to us baldies.