We were sitting in church Sunday before Mass and Mark leaned over. "I am really lucky to have hair. Look..." I looked around, he was right. Most men were bald or balding. To abate this you have implants, toupees, the comb-over, and the latest trend: shaving the whole thing to leave the true status to the imagination. "You are lucky," I replied. He has a full head of dark hair.
"Thank you Lord for the health of my family, my ability to work with my mind and my hands," he said, "and thank you for my hair." I rolled my eyes but laughed internally. He can be so irreverent.
My father has had male pattern baldness from the age of 16, fully bald over the top of his scalp by age 18. I've never known him to be anything but bald. He tried shaving it with a HeadBlade a few years back but that lasted about a month. He said it was just too much work to shave every day. Since allegedly boys get the hair gene from their maternal grandfather, that does not bode well for my boys. According to the Propecia people, 50% of men experience some male pattern baldness by age 50. This statistic is probably skewed a bit, considering the source, but it seems pretty close.
The female equivalent to this conundrum is hair color. Only one woman I know my age does not color her hair, and she has the most beautiful silver hair I have ever seen. To be honest, though, it does make her look older than she is. Is that just a matter of perception? Do those who color their hair look younger than they are? It's an assumption that women in their 30s do not have gray hair. That is not true. Most women in their 30s do have some gray, the definition of "premature gray" being inconsistent. Coloring has become the norm to the extent that those who don't color stand out.
Just as a side note I have no gray hair. My hairdresser has confirmed this, and she has done my hair for 10 years, so she is not lying to protect my vanity. Having said that, I do color my hair. I am a natural blonde. I could prove it, but I will spare you. I have my hair colored a reddish-brown, close to that of my mother's and my younger brother's. Why? Because of the stigma of blond hair. "Dumb blondes," "blondes have more fun," "gentlemen prefer blonds," blonde jokes. I've spent my whole life trying to prove that blondes really can be smart, but I really had to work hard, as pitiful as that is. Again, it's perception. What's really the point of remaining blonde? Only about 5% of women who appear blonde are genetically so. I would just fall into line with the rest of the herd.
It's been said before that a man's gray hair only makes him look more sophisticated. I should add that I think maybe some would say that baldness would detract from that look of sophistication. At my 20-year high school reunion last summer I found that the women looked great, and the men... not so much. Maybe it's the fat bald guy thing. The not-fat, not-bald guys were the ones who stood out. Mostly my hubby, thick hair arranged sloppily with hair glue.
