Hey Everyone
I have been quite neglectful lately, and for that I apologize. Things have been busy with the start of school, volunteering with frosh week and general life and consistently trying to do too much.
Anyway, the head shave went really really well. When I first cut my hair I had a purple mohawk. One night when I had a shower before bed I had this curly mop of purple hair, and when looking at myself in the mirror I really didn't see me anymore. I did not have any idea that my identity would be so caught up in my hair.
Once I cut the mohawk off (
pics) I started to feel a lot more like myself. I have had a ton of support from all of my family and friends. It is overwhelming how much people say that I am brave or congratulate me for what I did. I raised about $1200, which I am really stoked for. However, to me the brave ones are the people, the kids, men and women who are living their lives with cancer and their families who are coping. I am a healthy person who cut my hair.
In honesty, yes, I do miss it sometimes. But, I have learned a lot about my self through this whole process, and for me that is exciting. My showers are much shorter, and my time to get ready for school has decreased too. So far, I have had no bad hair days.
Having no hair has made me seriously consider the value and importance that our current society puts on superficial things, and how much of a women's femininity and sexuality is locked into her hair. The same thing goes for men, how much of their masculinity and youth is in their hair?
Upon walking to the bar one night I had someone shout at me from behind, asking whether I was a boy or a girl. I didn't bother to turn around, because really, where is that going to get me? Anyway, I had heels and a purse as visual cues from the back, but they still felt that it was a good idea to ask. Perhaps it was the combo of being tall and bald... What would my response have been?
Why do you care if I am a boy or a girl? It is absolutely necessary to put people into groups that we are comfortable and familiar with? Perhaps we can just love people as they are and have it not matter who everyone else finds attractive or what people are packing in their pants. Have a great night :)
Ok, so I probably would never say that in real life. Realistically both myself and the party in question had been drinking and I probably made the right choice to just walk on with my friends to go dance. What happened at the bar is a whole other story that isn't that important, except for one point. A woman walked up to me in the bathroom, and told me that she was really proud of what I did. She said that it must have been hard to shave all of my hair off but that she had a lot of respect for me.
Although this blog only has a small number of responses to my shaved head, it goes to show that there are lots ways that people will react, and the important thing is to be encouraged by the good ones and let the bad ones go. In reality, their judgement is going to cause them to miss out on a lot of cool things in life.
