Acts of Definance; The One Where I Shaved My Head

I want to start this post by saying that I LOVE my hair.  I love the color, I love the texture, I love how recently it's been drying wavy instead of straight.  I have never dyed my hair (well once, I did dye it pink temporarily, but nothing permanent) nor shall I ever.  I don't even blow-dry it because, well 1) it's too much damn work and 2) it's bad for your hair and I LOVE MY HAIR.

That being said, I have always wanted to shave my head.  Over the years, I've had many reasons for wanting to. First of all, I'm just not a huge fan of hair, ever.  On anyone.  I like my men bald, and I've often thought that I would like to be bald too.  I've always wanted to do it for feminist reasons, to prove that my looks were not my only value, or that gender roles blow, etc.

I've also always wanted to do it because of something my grandfather said to me, one time when I got a haircut. It was pretty short for me (maybe chin length) and I was a bit nervous about showing it off to the rest of the family.  Grandpa told me it looked beautiful but that it didn't matter, I would look beautiful even if I was bald.  It was one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me, the exact kind of thing family members should say to their children and I really believe he felt that way too.  Sadly, I won't know because he passed away in 2007, but I've always wondered what I would look like.

Lately, I have been thinking about doing it for body acceptance reasons. I knew a few people in college who did it for Love Your Body day (which is in October).  I also was inspired by Fat Heffalump when she shaved her head earlier this year.  I'm attending the NAAFA conference in August and I began thinking about doing it for then.  And then yesterday, when the temperature gauge in the car read 101 when we first got in it, I decided I was going to do it right damn now!

Here's the before.  Notice all my beautiful golden locks, but my hot sweaty face.  

Here's what she hacked off of me.  It was long enough to donate, which I was super stoked about!

And....
Here it is....
...................

The after picture!

It's been less than 24 hours but I LOVE IT.  It feels really nice and I think I oddly look more feminine, not less, at least head-on.  The side view is a little harder to adjust to but I'm loving it so far.  Mr. Sprat has been great through all of it and I think he really likes it too.  Besides now he won't find my hair everywhere!  No more clogging up the bathtub!  

A big thank you to the whole FA community and Kath in particular for helping me finally do what I've talked about for years and years!  Ba-ba-da-ba!   I have no hair!