Bald is Beautiful... it's not cliche!

So I've been meaning to blog about this forever. It was the first real photo project within my beauty project. I got the CD of photos from the photographer (or more her former boss) so now I'm blogging it! All the photos in this are untouched except the first one (the backdrop was wrinkly). After all, this is about True Beauty, not photo shop beauty! All photos were taken by Erin Bareham, the before photos were in a studio, the after photos were taken in and around Banff.

A friend of mine started photography and we arranged that she would do the before and after shoot of me shaving my head bald...

Every woman should do it and see just how gorgeous they are without hair. I'm not being weird. It's true. And it's surprising. When you shave your head your eyes look bigger. It's shocking how gorgeous the effect is.

I shaved my head for multiple reasons. One is that I think I had an awful lot of vanity tied up in my hair. I think to an extent that I would be ugly without it. I truly must admit that after seeing some of the before photos all I could think was how gorgeous I was and how ugly I might be when the hair came off. But I guess academically I knew a person without hair isn't ugly... its just the emotion of it all. Its very hard to get past emotion and honestly, I think this has a lot to do with what a lot of women have a hard time with as far as their bodies are concerned.

Another reason I was shaving it off was for this blog and to prove to myself that no matter how I look I am and will always be gorgeous. Perhaps that sounds silly or narcissistic. It's not. I've struggled my whole life in a war with my body. I'm fighting an extreme hatred of my body, which I will discuss in depth in other entries. After all this blog is for me. To help me fall in love with it.

The 3rd (official) and more selfless reason for shaving my head was to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation. You see, it was the first ever National Shave Your Head at Work Day. Held September 14, 2007 (yes this blog is VERY overdue!). Cancer is pretty personal for me. Both my Grandfathers had Kidney cancer, my Mom had Breast cancer and I had 4 tumors removed from my ankle. I want this to be the disease that is hard to explain to our children. Let me explain that. When I was a child, I learned that Roosevelt had Polio. My Dad tried really hard to explain it and how we can't get it now from vaccinations but it never really meant anything to me because I never met anyone with Polio. I did later in life meet a girl from India who had it as a child and the whole thing hit close to home. But really when my children ask what Cancer was I want to be able to tell them it's something that won't really have that big of an effect on them.

The actual head shave was fun. It didn't bug me much, after all hair grows (literally) like a weed out of your head. My friend Paul came along and tried to get photos of it... however the lighting was terrible so they didn't turn out too well. They divided my hair into 4 sections, braided them (for donation purposes), hacked off the braids, and then shaved it all off. I giggled the whole time (those razors tickle!) and a couple ladies watching were crying! I thought it silly but I guess that shows you just how emotional hair is for us women.

I think the harder part of this whole thing has been as my hair has grown in. It grows in funny (and if you don't cut it starts to look like a mullet... Cut the tail!!!!), and I have a hard time styling short hair. Frankly long hair is easy, wash it and if its in the way tie it back, no styling really involved! I must also admit its hard not to have gorgeous hair to hide behind. I had a lot of fun with the bald head. People like to rub it and its easy to care for. But I do know now, that pretty much no matter what happens to my appearance, I will always be incredibly beautiful. I'm also starting to learn that beauty truly comes from inside.