I have been shaving my head since I was a small child. A crew cut, as my father would call it, was aptly suited for the summer months in a hot city. New York City to be precise. I was obsessed with G. I. Joe and camouflage and so I liked buzzing off my hair that I usually had grown out since the fall. I felt like a soldier.

Nothing has changed much. It was always the cycle. I’d grow my hair out long and then get sick of it and shave my head. I’m getting older and I’ve noticed a slight receding, just saying that irks my close friends who are either balding or completely bald. My father is bald and he’s joked that it’s inevitable, he went bald at 33 and I’m ten years older than that now and still got it, though I’m not too concerned about losing it, I like shaving my head. I like the prickly feel of it on my fingers. I use the lowest clip on the buzzer, cutting it close. I’m more Sinéad O’Connor than Kojack.

Whether associated with the military or popularized in music in either mainstream hip hop like House Of Pain, or championed by punk rock hardcore’s functional alcoholics No Redeeming Social Value, I like repping a skinhead. Not to be confused with any Neo-nazis. And I might concur, skinheads rule. It is so much easier, pragmatically. A shaved head can be polarized, as it can be viewed as liberating or as a sign of oppression.

Over the years a shaved head could be empowering or dehumanizing. Ancient Egyptian priests removed all the hair from their bodies. The Bible regards a bald head as cleanliness. In France during World War II, woman who were accused of collaborating were shamed by having their heads shaved. The women at the Salem Witch Trials had their heads shaved. It can be regarded as spiritual, and though I’m not religious I think the reason why Buddhist monks shave their heads is pretty righteous. It is a sacrifice of vanity, they renounce the worldly ego and fashion by shaving their heads. Fuck your fashion statement. That’s an ideology I can stand behind.

Though there is certainly no ceremony or transcendence in my bathroom, just a small mess in the sink and some uncertainty if I got it all or not.