Well, today, I had my first haircut in about 5 months. To be fair, I needed it – whilst some people can carry off long, flowing locks, my hair tends to grow in volume as faster than it does in length, and as those people who have met me recently will surely testify, it was getting to the “Look, just get it cut, you look ridiculous” sort of stage.
Of course, the hairdresser, having cut it to a suitable length, then ruined everything by styling it in a stupid way, but I’ve since washed the gunk he put in out again, and restyled it myself so that I didn’t have the fringe combed forwards in an unflattering manner. Much better.
In addition, the much maligned “minibeard” has gone. This absurd piece of facial fuzz took up residence a couple of years ago, and has survived some fairly desperate attempts by my friends, family, girlfriend and, on occasion, total strangers to persuade me to remove it. My logic has always been that it might look ridiculous, but my chin, which has been hidden underneath for all these years, looks even more unattractive – hence, whilst the beard made me look stupid, at least that was my choice; my chin makes me look stupid and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
I’ll confess, my immediate reaction (once I’d managed to stem the bleeding and mopped up the worst of the blood from around the bathroom) was one of abject horror. I looked into the mirror, and saw the face of myself, only several years younger, staring back at me. And that’s a version of myself I’m quite happy to leave several years in the past. In a stupid sort of way, there were memories of many things I’d rather forget hidden behind that comical sprouting, and removing it has brought some of them back to the surface. I’ve been quite happy with my self-image for some time now, but I suddenly feel very, very naked and exposed again without it. It’s going to take some geting used to, I think.
I’m still not quite sure why I shaved it off. Fortunately, though, I’m leaving the country for a week as of tomorrow, so if I decide I really don’t like being without it, I can make a decent start on growing it back before anyone here notices.
Inevitably, there’s a picture.
You only shaved off part of the mini-beard! Ditch the rest of it, see what it looks like and then grow it back in a different style if you feel naked without it. Hair looks good, btw 🙂
Aha! So *that’s* what you look like underneath… I’ve been seriously contemplating removing my facial sprouting, too… I’ve had it 8 years and it’s only just grown to a state I’m happy with!!! 🙂
Dude – get rid of the rest of the ‘beard’ you won’t regret it… and you know that you will be more trusted!
You know you can tell the hairdresser not to style your hair if you choose?
I often like having something funky when I go onholiday so I tell the hairdresser to do something funky but not tell me what they are going to do.