The picture above shows six months and two and a half weeks post-shave. I have cultivated a hair helmet. Look out world, I'm on my way to a Beiber swoop + mullet combo.
At its current length, my hair suggests a recent hair cut as opposed to a full head shave. So when I inform people that my current style is a post-shave result, I have often been told that I am brave for shaving off my hair. I then thank them for thinking so and we carry on with our conversation.
I do not think I was brave to shave my hair. To be brave is to face something that carries a certain amount of risk, danger, or fear; it is to be courageous, to stand firmly in one's convictions in the face of uncertainty and opposition. When I shaved my head, I was surrounded by the support and encouragement of my family and friends. I faced very little danger to my being, or my reputation, or my relationships. I did not have to worry about rejection or being ostracized. My greatest concern probably lay in the realm of exposing a potentially oddly-shaped scalp.
Rather than being brave, I would say that my decision was bold, daring, unconventional, youthful, or experimental. I have had the blessing to say that I did not require bravery to go bald. I was not faced with a medical diagnosis. I did not have to anticipate a societal backlash. I did not have to act in any sort of rebellion. I simply had the luxury to make a decision and follow it through.
For someone else, shaving their head may be an incredibly brave act. In my case, I cannot make that claim. I can only be thankful for the social environment I live in that makes it possible for me to make such a decision so fearlessly.
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