The beauty of being bald

MANILA, Philippines - I shaved my head because of a dare. Going bald was the farthest thing from my mind although my hair started to thin in the late ’80s. Because of misplaced vanity, I tried hard to cover the bald spot on my pate by wearing a toupee for years, which was very uncomfortable most specially during the hot summer months when the head sweats a lot.

It takes effort to scratch the scalp when artificial hair is covering it. Other cover-up schemes I also tried included using black hairspray, augmentation by weave and the ever-convenient comb over (colloquially known as shaggy — “Sha Gylid ang hati”). To compound my woes, my hair started turning gray and I had to dye it twice a month. Initially, I did the dyeing myself with over-the-counter quick dyes like Clairol’s Options and Just For Men. The problem with do-it-yourself dyes is the collateral mess. I’ve stained countless towels and shirts not to mention the toilet floor. I then decided it was time to have a professional do the chore. Bruno’s barbers was my choice for the next seven years. I had my hair cut, dyed and styled every other week at Bruno’s in Greenbelt 1.

After a hectic sold-out Cascades tour of eight cities in September 2005, I took a relaxing cruise with the lead singer of the Cascades, John Claude Gummoe, to chill. In one of our conversations under a starlit night in the middle of the straits of Malacca onboard Star Cruises’ mega-ship Virgo, he suggested that I have my hair cut really short like his so that I can save on trips to Bruno’s. He also added that visually, cropped hair makes a man look young. I jokingly retorted I would shave my head to totally save on trips to the barber and shampoo if he shaved his. His response was “I just might do that so be ready to shave.” I never expected him to do it.

With John when we still had hair

On the morning of Christmas, I received an email from John with a picture of him bald and the remark “YOUR TURN” in bold capital letters. I suddenly went into panic. That statement I made about shaving was just in jest. I had no plans of going bald in my wildest dreams and what was worse, I was attending a costume party that night. I sat in front of the mirror for six hours contemplating and gathering guts to make the first snip. After struggling through my first shave, I had seven cuts in my head, which made me look like I just got out of a nasty car crash. I later attended the costume party as a hip-hop singer with a shaved head, chains, low-cut pants and an NBA jersey. I almost got thrown out of the party because the receptionists whom I’ve known for years didn’t recognize me. The host, my close friend King Aguiluz, thought I was a gatecrasher until I told him who I was. He laughed so hard and I became the butt of jokes the whole night. God compensated me though by winning the P50,000 grand prize at the raffle at the end of the party.

Looking back on hindsight, I think shaving my head was one of the best things I’ve done in my life. It liberated me from the subconscious nagging feeling that people may be staring at my bald spot, not to mention saving on trips to the barber, hair dyes, shampoo, brushes, hair tonics, minoxydil, etc. Nowadays, I need only purchase safety razors once every few months. No more time consuming shampooing, blow-drying and hairstyling every morning. A lot of my friends claim I look younger. But the biggest perk of being bald was attracting the love of my life with whom I now have two beautiful kids. She finds bald men sexy and has threatened to leave me if I grew my hair back. Attention balding men! Shave and go bald. It will liberate you.