A Place Between Short & Long Hair
Some women like it. Bald men are jealous. There’s a place between short and long hair where it is neither short nor long and it looks unkempt and it’s hard to groom. I don’t know how you women-folk, or others who wear it long, do it so well. I have longer hair than one of the biggest rock stars in the world- Paul Stanley from Kiss. I got a picture with him last night to prove it. It first stabs into your eyes for a few weeks. Then it tickles your nose. Then it stabs into your mouth. When it’s long it gets in your eyes, your mouth, your food, it blocks your vision, gets rolled up in the window of your car or shut in the door. One must constantly pull it out from your collar or your jacket. It gets stuck in the hinge of your reading glasses. Then you sit or lean on it and it pulls your head back. It gets really tangled on windy days. I have to fuss with the sink drain and the shower drain more strenuously or else have stinky hair balls clogging things up. Pony tails look good on the backsides of ponies but not so much on the backs of the heads of old men- particularly otherwise bald old men. I haven’t had my hair cut since April of 2013. I’m growing mine long in honor of my mother who died of cancer 45 years ago this summer. There’s a charity called “Locks of Love” that takes donated hair and makes human hair wigs for cancer patients. They need to be able to bundle and cut 8” of hair on a few places on your head to be able to work with it. I’m a working man and can’t donate much money to the cause of cancer prevention. I can grow my hair for the cause though. I’m not sure whether Western medicine can solve the problem of cancer with Corporate America involved. They don’t want to cure it. They would lose customers. They want to provide a patented drug for the rest of your life or an incredibly expensive procedure to manage the symptoms but not actually cure it. I’m not sure that Americans want to change their sedentary lifestyle and stop eating the horrible food-like substances that they are eating that are convenient and inexpensive and that taste so good. It looks like I’ll have enough hair to donate to the cause by August of 2014. We humans are really vain. We get so hung up on the outward physical stuff that just doesn’t matter. That doesn’t mean that I begrudge a cancer patient who has lost so much who wants to look beautiful with a nice head of hair. It’s a little bit of comfort and happiness in an otherwise crappy thing going on in their life. Long hair is met with suspicion and contempt sometimes. I’m guilty of being a bit shallow too but I wonder if my life in entertainment would have been different if I were a homely man? My male physicality and my sexy/racy stage presence, which hair is a part of, is an important element of my professional life. Long hair is associated with certain lifestyles I suppose. Where does it say that long or short hair is the standard uniform hairstyle of any philosophy or lifestyle? How do we know that the rulebook is correct? My long hair has probably cost me a few DJ jobs because I look like a long-haired drug-user. My long hair has probably cost me some regard in a few other social circles. Mine has to be flat-ironed- it takes some time each day. Slicked back hair made me look like a cheap TV gangster. I tried some other products to tame it but then I looked like Iggy Pop. (Google some images of him) When, for a cause, you have to contend with your hair all day and night, you make some observations on life. When the occasion presents itself to talk about it, I talk about it. Cancer kills people. My mom was 34. She had dreams. Her last concern was for my welfare. I was a baby. Statistically speaking, I’m a very high risk for cancer. Men in general are 1 in 6 for prostate cancer. If your father had it, (mine did) you are 1 in 4. If your brother had it, (mine did) you are 1 in 3. I hope that when I speak of my mom and of my adventures with long hair in the various circles that I move in that someone considers their health and what they are doing for it. Do they have insurance? Do they have a plan if they leave a family behind? Because of the ever-increasing and ever-present nature of the hair and the care it requires and the purpose for which I’m growing the long hair, it starts to color every decision and action. Every time I’m sedentary when I should get out of the house and go for a hike or at least a walk around the neighborhood, I remember that THIS moment and THIS decision is the kind of thing that leads to cancer and I choose a healthier alternative. Every time I am about to put some processed or otherwise unhealthy food in my mouth and my long hair is dragging across the food or blowing into my mouth along with it, I remember that THIS moment and THIS decision is the kind of thing that can lead to cancer. It’s not some other time and place way off in the future, it’s here and now that you do something about it.
