Yes, I Did Shave my Head !!!

Well, this is the new me. What do you think?
And yes, that is all the hair they cut off my head.

I'll agree, the first time you see it, it's quite a shock. But I don't regret a single moment. So much good came out of the experience.

First, I raised $750. My team has raised $6900 and all total everyone who participated in the event last Saturday has raised $105,000 for St. Balrick's. Not too shabby.

What have I discovered with this experience? I like how my hair feels. It's as soft as the fuzz on a ripe peach. I want to rub it all the time. My natural hair color is darker than I remember... can't tell about the grey yet though. I have a nice shaped head and my forehead isn't as high as I thought it was. The no hair thing makes my eyes stand out so now I like experimenting with bold make up. I also don't feel ugly.

I have no desire to cover or hide my baldness either. The reactions I get are varied. Children stare out of curiosity. I think they would love to ask questions or rub my head. Some of my friends do rub my head the very first thing. I notice many people don't want to make eye contact. Some ask and I tell them. The first thing out of the mouths of many of the people I know is asking if I'm okay. Am I in treatment? It has moved some to tears when I tell them why I cut my hair.

The cool thing is that it starts conversations. People want to share their stories with me. Their own struggles with cancer or how the disease has affected their lives because someone they love had it. I'm seeing the world through their eyes. I want to do more to champion this cause.

The humbling thing is that everyone applauds my courage. Here is where I get embarrassed. At first I was kinda proud of myself for my courage, but that's mostly because, my natural instinct is to ignore any kind of prompting or intuition that isn't perfectly logical. ( I hope you understand what I'm trying to say) I was proud of myself for taking the leap of faith not my contribution. This was an act of obedience for me; not a grand gesture to make a statement.

If I were to rate this experience on a scale of 1 - 10, I'd give it a 10.

The guys from the BNI Alliance who went bald with me!
 L-R: Bill Schumaucher, Don Thomas, Brian Madden (team capt.) and Pete Davis