So for a while now I’ve been wondering what my head would look like without hair. (I suspect it’s all those movies where actors actually shave their heads for the role – some look really cool and others have really mis-shapen noggins. Made me wonder about my own head.)
Since I’m an artist it seemed appropriate to document all this and keep as much of my hair as I could to use for various projects.
The first task was to tie my hair up in a ponytail and take photos of my ‘before’ head.
Next Phi cut off my ponytail. It looks really cool, one end is a bundle of curls and the cut end curves away in a feathered fashion. I hope to make a special box to keep it in.
More pictures followed. I rather liked this stage. While from the back it looks strangely mutant, from the front it sort of resembles a bob cut.
I then cut off as much hair as I could using a pair of scissors. I caught these cuttings on a sheet of newsprint and they piled up in interesting patterns. I’ve been dying my hair red for a number of years so as I worked around my head the colour varied as I got closer and closer to my scalp.
Another round of photos followed. This was the ugliest stage. I looked like I’d had some sort of shock and my hair had fallen out in clumps. The colour was pretty spotty. Now I’d really committed myself to this project and had to go on. A quick trip to the hairdressers would not fix this!
Phi’s beard trimmer came out and Phi zipped off much of what was left of my hair.
More photos!
Lastly a disposable razor and shaving cream were utilised to get as bald a head as possible.
One last set of photos for today.
I was lucky to discover that I have a rather nicely shaped head, all curves and rounds. Not a bobble or oddly shaped bump in sight. Looking in the mirror is wierd as my face now looks too short and out of proportion. My scalp feels incredibly soft when rubbed with the grain but brush against the grain and it feels like sandpaper.
I’ve been out and about with my baldness but I’ve been wearing a sunhat to protect my skin so nobody has noticed.
Current temperature 75F/24C
All I can say is “Wow”. It’s definitely been an experience. If you ask nice maybe she’ll let me post some photos of bits of her newly bald head :-).
I *really* *really* *really* want to see pictures! As someone who also has a shaved head, I think pictures sent to my email would display a send a strong message of commraderie.
Obviously I can’t formulate a grammatically correct sentence. I meant {display a | send a} in the last comment!
Has Clare rubbed your head? She *loved* doing so soon after I’d been stubbled. And I expect you’ve now reached the softest stage of them all, with a couple of weeks passed since your shearing …
There are a few photos on Phi’s Flickr web site but for now I’m not really sharing images until I’ve made up my mind what I’m going to do with them. I have a couple of ideas but I want to see how things ‘grow in’ in the next few months.
Sub Evil boy went through a period of time when he would keep rubbing my head. Currently it’s more like a skull cap and less conducive to rubbing.
I must say that I rub her head a lot more than I did when her hair was long. I always just felt tangled up in the long hair, and it’s just so fun to rub her fuzzy head now :-).
I should also point out that we try to take a full set of pictures from different angles every night to document it’s return. We’ve gotten sloppier here as it changes less visibly each day, but we have a ton of shots. Maybe a movie or flip card animation of WeatherGirl growing back her hair…?