Skinhead

“Hey Doug why didn’t you lose all your hair and go bald after chemo?” Friends asked me.

“I really don’t know.” I replied.

“Didn’t you have about six months of chemo treatments? They wondered why I still had my hair.

“Cancer patients have different kinds of cancer in different stages so the treatment is really quite different for each patient.” I would muster some kind of response. I just did not lose my hair. I had chemo brain, diarrhea, and sensitivity to hot and cold but some people just look for bald cancer patients.

After all my chemo and radiation treatments were complete, I decided to shave my head. I wanted to experience losing my hair. So many women lose their hair and need to wear a wig.

I have never been bald.

I decided to shave my head bald. I watched black men in the YMCA shave their heads in the locker room. It looked too difficult for me to manage shaving with a mirror image. I worried I could cut off one of my ears.

I chose a barber to do the job. The electric shears removed most of my hair in one minute and I looked like an marine ready for boot camp. Next the barber lathered my head with shaving cream and shaved my head with a straight razor. It cost me twenty bucks and I still have both ears. I left a big tip and all of my hair on the floor.

Oooooooo it is chilly with no hair. I need a baseball cap. Ooooooooo that feels really weird to have a bald head. Like sleeping in bed with no pjs.

Next step was to capture this moment with a digital camera. My shooter friend Rick was recruited for the skinhead shoot. The location was the a High School cement wall.

The skinhead photo shoot was fun. I got to be a tough guy with no hair.

Funny how Samson lost all his power when they cut off all his hair. I no longer have that leather jacket, rusty pipe nor the stained shirt. I do have a memory of being powerful, hair or no hair. I let my hair grow out after the skinhead photo shoot. I got to be a skinhead for a week.