Hair Update 1

A full week and two days have passed since I shaved all my hair off and it has been growing back rather nicely.

Here are some of the perks of the shaved head life:

1.  Super quick showers (because who needs shampoo?)
2. Minimal/ Unnoticeable shedding (the hairbrush hairball is no more!)
3. Low maintenance (no bad hair days, nothing to tie back, nothing to snag in chairs, zippers, glasses...kind of like the cape-less superhero life that Edna Mode endorses)
4. The fuzziness (the growing hairs are soft and fuzzy...as long as you go with the grain)

As it grows longer, my hair is losing its Velcro-like qualities. The "longer" hair also helps with heat retention so my head isn't as cold when it feels that passing breeze of A/C. In terms of personal impressions of my life post-shave, I feel simultaneously trendier and more demure. Removing my hair has made me more aware of my physicality and how I express myself through what I wear. I used hair styling to help define my look and express mood, wakefulness and formality. Hair does a lot to create a general silhouette and proportion the body. Now that my hair has been minimized, I feel more acutely how my wardrobe affects the kind of visual impression I make. A part of me feels more pressured, as well as more confident, to be "more fashionable," as if to justify the "artistic" decision to shave my head, while the more practical side of me just wants to make sure my proportions aren't off.

Along with feeling more conscious about my clothing, I am much less aware of my hair. I don't feel any different as myself, having a shaved head, and only notice the difference when I look at myself in the mirror or when someone comments on it. As mentioned before, it's extremely low-maintenance; so I don't have to worry if my part looks weird or if I have hairs sticking awkwardly out of a bun or if a braid has gone awry. The amount of attention I used to spend maintaining my hair is now diverted elsewhere, which is kind of nice in the moments I realize, "oh, I haven't been worrying about my hair."The decreased attention to hair plus my wearing head scarves from time to time sometimes makes me feel a bit demure. Multiple cultures implement some sort of head-covering to imply humility or modesty. I guess I get some feeling of that with removing the distractions of hair styling and the occasional head scarf covering.

Examining my impressions of my shaved head exemplifies one of the many ways my physical appearance impacts my perception of myself and of how others view me. We'll see how they change as I let my hair continue to grow out. My guess is that once it gets to about an inch, I'll start looking like a Korean middle-school boy. Oh, the joys of short hair. :)