About a month or so ago I got another trim at another one of those discount “Master Care Hair Care Performer Care Clips Care” places and realized that the “stylist” was messing with my hair in such a way as to make sure the ever growing thin spot on the crown of my head was covered. Sigh. Beautiful Wife, bless her heart, insists this isn’t technically a comb over. Just one reason I love her, she doesn’t slam my ego at every turn.
Since I retired from the Air Force (can you believe it’s been three years?) I’ve tried various and sundry hair/beard configurations. While I’d like to have the patience to go for Billy Connolly in “Boondock Saints,” the best I can really hope for is Jeff Bridges in anything from the last dozen years, but with a Monk’s Bowl where the crown of my head is. I don’t think The Dude prevails with a bald spot.
A couple of Saturdays ago, it was hot and we hadn’t quite got the air conditioner thing worked out for the summer yet and I had beads of sweat running down my neck and back etc., so…out came the clippers. A quick buzz and then into the shower with the good ol’ Gillette and poof, back to the cueball look.
I’ve tried going back to AF short. I’ve tried medium. I’ve tried medium-long. With my hair thinning more and the weird color pattern that seems to refuse to balance out, and the fact that it’s just plain easy, I think I’m going to keep it shaved at least for the foreseeable future.
So six years ago when I first shaved the dome, I tried this thing called a Headblade. It’s a razor specifically made for shaving your head. It looked cool. It’s well-designed. It’s got kind of a YinYang logo. They supported the UFC. It was an American invention from the 90s, back when Americans were still inventing things that worked better. But I digress. Six years ago when I first tried the Headblade Classic, I pretty much shredded my scalp. It used a two-blade cartridge and I never quite got the balance of the thing. You’re supposed to put NO pressure on the blade end. I somehow couldn’t get my hand to to figure that out.
The latest version, the Headblade Sport, ran $12.99 at my local Walgreens and works so well it’s kind of scary. Yes, it looks like half a Hot Wheel. And it’s got three blades vs two so the blades are a bit more pricey. However, one pass and the hair was gone, leaving all the skin intact and smooth as a baby’s butt. So not only did it shave amazingly close, it did it with LESS irritation than my (insert ridiculous number)-blade face razor because I only had to make one, maybe two passes to get the hair gone. I don’t know if it’s the wheels or the three blade configuration or that I’ve mellowed considerably over the past six years, but this thing works!
I hear you on the weird color pattern thing.
For a good long while I was on Sutent to fight my malignant tumors. Sutent turns your hair white. Not gray, white. So there I was at 48 with hair whiter than my 70 year old AF veteran Dad (both with full beards to boot). It was not fun being out in public with him and people thinking we were brothers – with me being the older brother.
Now I’m on a different therapy (one that takes me to DC every two weeks to get treated at NIH/NCI) and I THINK I’m seeing signs that my hair color is returning to something more normal for a 48 year old ex-Navy Nuke.
As someone who blew right through the possible “combover” stage, I’m gonna have to look into these thingies. Thanks for the tip, old colleague!
J.
Update: I got one of those Hotwheels, and was… less than wowed. It didn’t go anywhere near as close as I’d been getting with my Personna M5 ($5.98 at Wal-Mart, with a 4-pack of blades at the same price).
Interesting design, though…
J.