A Whole New Look

As a young boy growing up in the Studer household, I had daily reminders of my hair follicle future. My father started losing his hair at a young age, and his father did as well. My older brother followed suit, and so it went. I knew that at some point my hairline would start the gradual path to oblivion.

"Maybe you'll be different," my mother always told me. Yeah right, Mom. Apparently I'm not that special. I had tons of hair as a boy (like most people do) but I just couldn't hang on to it. The years after college went just as I imagined they would. Slowly but surely my hair continued to fall out. "You've kept it longer than your dad and your brother," my mom would say. I love my mom for trying to make me feel better, but it's not much comfort when I saw pictures of myself from the year before and could barely recognize myself.

Hair cuts seemed more and more useless every time I went. But since I was on TV I continued to pay $20 a pop to have someone cut what few hairs I had left. But now I've left the TV world where I was contractually obligated to keep what little hair remained. So now that I'm out of the television grasp, I decided to go for it. Get rid of it all.

Here's the progression...

It's definitely different, and cold. It's crazy how much your hair insulates your melon from the crisp South Dakota wind. But my wife says she likes it, which I guess is all that matters, right? Since she has to stare at my mug the most, I guess she should be happy with it. And she said, "You've dealt with about 100 of my different hair styles, I think I can deal with you shaving your head."

So there you have it, me and my cold cue ball. Just pray for Alex and Maguire. Poor fellas don't know what's coming their way in about 25 years. But at least now they'll have me as a picture of their own follicle future.