{"id":299,"date":"2011-03-12T04:08:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T09:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/?p=299"},"modified":"2011-03-12T04:13:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-12T09:13:31","slug":"hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/?p=299","title":{"rendered":"Hair"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time very early in my life when I had a good healthy head of natural hair. It seems almost preposterous that I would even think about this now, but it all came back to me when I recently came across a photograph of myself taken shortly before graduation from high school. There I was – young, handsome, clear skin, innocent, and yes \u2013 hairy. It\u2019s almost hard to believe that in the 60\u2019s, I was considered a rebel sporting my \u201csurfer hair.\u201d
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In the late 1960\u2019s, I grew curly locks down over my ears to celebrate the hippie craze, but it wasn\u2019t long after that that I started noticing a reckless thinning across the summit region of my forehead. For a while I did the comb-over method, involving displacing strands of hair in a futile attempt of homemade transplant therapy. If it wasn\u2019t windy or I didn\u2019t make any sudden moves, I could camouflage the balding area quite well. Eventually, however, most of my hair just gave up the will to live.<\/p>\n

I never liked the way I looked when I lost my hair. Some men with small noses and round little faces look good bald, but I have prominent German features that don\u2019t compliment baldness very well. I even tried to shave my head \u2013 the accepted fad today \u2013 but everyone said I looked like one of the Munsters. I guess I should have been OK with the fact that I was bald, but I just couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that I looked goofy. <\/p>\n

For a few years I always wore a hat. My work was mostly outside \u2013 farming, logging, and carpentry \u2013 so it fit right in with my occupation. Even danger had its rewards with the addition of a hard hat to my apparel. I felt comfortable with a hat on; it became a part of me and I a part of it. My hat protected my delicate head from sunburn and shaded my eyes. It would keep pesky insects from biting and add a bit of warmth on a cold day. I would sooner leave the house without my pants on (I don\u2019t think I ever did that!) than without my hat.<\/p>\n

And then I entered a period of my life where I knew I needed a change. The kids were getting involved in school and I would be attending concerts, plays and all kinds of parent activities. I wanted to take some classes at the local college, and I was training for an office job at work. All these activities suggested that I carry a code of conduct and dress that conformed to something normal. I either had to get over my self-consciousness about my baldness, or go to the dark side of deception. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with a little deceit and deception \u2013 we all do it. We color our hair, paint our faces, replace glasses with contacts, shave our heads, wear uncomfortable shoes and clothes for style, drive pretty vehicles, wear wigs, and get implants. Please don\u2019t tell me you don\u2019t care what you look like. We all want a little admiration. <\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t worn my hairpiece for many months and decided to put it on for Daryl\u2019s birthday dinner. It was more of a joke than anything, and I was interested in how everyone would react. The wig was made many years ago and it really doesn\u2019t go with my face anymore, but someone that didn\u2019t know me, wouldn\u2019t realize it\u2019s not real. The reaction I got from everyone was all over the place. I guess the point I\u2019m trying to make is this: We perceive ourselves a lot different than other people do and appearance is a mystical thing.<\/p>\n

These are the reactions I got from everyone. See if you can figure out who you are: One person was shocked. One person had a sarcastic smile. One person was surprised. One person said, \u201cWhat do you want to wear THAT thing for.\u201d One person said, \u201cWow, it makes you look younger!\u201d One person was disappointed because I didn\u2019t look as much like Dad.
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There was a time very early in my life when I had a good healthy head of natural hair. It seems almost preposterous that I would even think about this now, but it all came back to me when I recently came across a photograph of myself taken shortly before graduation from high school. There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pieces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}