October 14 is Be Bald and Be Free Day and it is a topic to be addressed on a Throwback Thursday. I’ve already featured photos of my quite copious mane of teenage hair. As time went on my forehead seemed to grow. Of course what was actually happening was my hair was steadily retreating. I used to joke that I would just have to shave it all off but no one took me seriously knowing how much I liked my hair. One day in 1998 I pulled a practical joke and bought a bald cap and makeup and surprised someone with the following.

It wasn’t perfect but I thought it was funny and it turned out to be a preview. As time went on the hair continued to recede and one day a number of years ago I glanced in the mirror and wondered if I grew my hair slightly longer on the side and used a comb to disguise the growing skin patch – and that did it. No kidding, I shaved all my hair off that very day. For professional purposes I had a new look.

If only I still looked that way today. I can return to it in less than an hour, barbers do marvelous work. But I took the opportunity during the pandemic to let my beard go wild. I guess I missed the long hair I enjoyed as a teen but could no longer grow it there. So I transferred it to my chin. I am not ready to show it off quite yet as it is still growing and needs a bit of a trim (if you go back to some of the photos of my mountain motorcycle trip you can see it starting). If I keep this up I might just be able to land a job as a real bearded Santa this December. Stay tuned! Go Bald and Be Free. It is actually a fun way to be as long as I remember the sun screen!

As always you can find more at www.walterthinnes.com and on Twitter @walterthinnes