Buzzed.

Last night I undid the tight bun my hair was twisted into (a look reserved for Sunday trips to the grocery store and the occasional weekday when I've snoozed an extra 20 minutes too long) and started finger-brushing through the snarls and curls. As I tried to tame the serpentine mass, a thought popped into my head: maybe I could shave it all off...?

I indulged for a few minutes in a fantasy in which I was not only bald and beautiful, but also sporting a different pair of earrings for every day of the year. I would need to invest in more sets, but that was a fixable problem.

When I felt sufficiently convinced that this was a brilliant idea, I interrupted Game of Thrones to ask, "Ben, would you still love me if I shaved my head?" And he replied, "Of course, I would love you just like a sister."

Though he was teasing, I suspected a hint of truth to it. But, then, he has stuck with me through other hair-related fiascoes, really bad eyeglass frame choices, and more than one drastic weight gain. I had a pretty good sense that he could handle it.

It's not like I need his permission, anyway, but I did feel like it would be fair to get some input from the person who wakes up next to me every day. Knowing he didn't really care was all I needed to put some more momentum behind my scheme.

But then I told facebook what I was thinking and (I should not be at all surprised) got an onslaught of opinions, including one not in favor emailed privately to me. What my friend said made a lot of sense, and I realized that shaving my head is not like changing my shade of lipstick. Does it need to be that extreme to be a liberating change? Probably not.

Of course, this morning, a friend who once had a star etched in the hair on the back of her head said she had been thinking about it for 10 years. We ended up talking for quite a while about why we would want to do it. And all that made sense, too.

Truth is, this is a big deal in my small world. But really it is just a pointless battle between embracing vanity and making a symbolic gesture to reject it. It is, in short, a silly thing to put so much brain power to. 

Good night, friends.