Bad hair day? Hat head crunching your style?
In too much of a rush to use that brush?
Some KU students have found an answer by...
Showin' some Skin
Photos by Tom Leininger
Story By Novelda Sommers
Teneille Haggard is bald and beautiful. To say otherwise would be a bald-faced lie.
Haggard, La Crosse, WI
Haggard, La Crosse, Wis., junior,
shaves her head every two weeks
to maintain her close-cropped coif. Hagard is one of a few women at the University of Kansas who shave their heads. She has worn the style for two years, she said.
It is different from most women's hairstyles. Haggard said she had always been a little rebellious. Shaving one's head takes courage, she said. Being bald has bolstered her self-confidence.
"For a lot of women, having long hair is a 'pretty' issue. They think, I need to have hair to make me pretty." Haggard said. "I don't need hair to make me pretty."
A shaved head is the lowest-maintenance hairstyle. Men and women usually shake their heads because it is convenient, said Adrienne Klinknett, stylist at GQ Hair-selling. 661 W. Ninth St.
Haggard agreed. "I just brush my teeth, and I'm out the door," she said.
Klinkenet had advice for people contemplating baldness.
"People need to have strong features to pull it off, but men who are going bald anyway should just shave it all off," she said.
Klinknett said she had been glad when professional tennis player Andre Agassi shaved his head. Agassi was known for his five-o'clock shadow and his long, thinning hair.
"I think a lot of guys who were going bald felt more comfortable shaving their heads after Andre Agassi did it." Klinkett said.
A shave at GQ costs $16, the same as a regular haircut.
Brett Schoenfeld, Prairie Village freshman, said he shaved his head every eight or nine days with a pair of $13 clippers.
Peter Menihan, Mission Hills freshman, said he has been bald for about three weeks. Before that, his hair was in a blond Afro style. The height and straw-like consistency of his hair often made him the butt of his friends' jokes.
"Some of my friends didn't like it that I shaved it off because they liked laughing at it," he said. "I think I might just keep growing it out and cutting it off. It's fun to have a change."
Schoenfeld and Haggard said that people identified the haircut with neo-Nazi skin heads.
Lauri Woods, senior researcher at Klan Watch, a Montgomery, Ala., organization that researches hate groups, said that there were several types of skin heads and that not all people who shaved their heads were racist.
She said the look originated with the working class in England in the 1960s. The British shaved their heads for cleanliness and convenience, and the style caught on in the United States.
Some social groups adopt the hairstyle to show solidarity, she said.
"Most of the time they listen to a certain type of music or dress a certain way, but you can't characterize all of them in a
sweeping statement, " Woods said.
Dustin Flesher, Colorado Springs, Colo., senior, said that he shaved his head to be rebellious. But Flesher did not think that his bald head turned many other heads in Lawrence.
Larry Franklin, barber at Larry's Barber Shop, 924 Massachusetts St., said he gave the cut two or three times daily to people
of all ages. The cut at Larry's costs $5
airline's costs.20
Franklin opted for the shaved 'do because he had a receding hair line, he said.
"We call it a burr because when you go outside,you go, 'burr,'" Franklin said.
He also said that he liked the cut because it prevented hat hair.
Hat hair, also known as hat head, is barber-shop lingo for the temporary depression a baseball cap leaves when a hat has been worn too long.
"Hat head is the barber's paranoia," Franklin said. "Invariably, you give someone a nice haircut, and they will put on a hat as they walk out the door."
ABOVE: Brett Schoenfeld, Prairie Village freshman, sheshs his head every eight to nine days. LEFT: Tenneille Haggard, La Crosse, Wis., junior, admits to being a rebellious. She shaves her head two weeks and dyes her bangs whenever she feels like it.
Chrome Dome, Yo! (reasons to go bald)
EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES
Exhibition—"The Great Pretenders: Photographs of Elvis Impersonators," Friday through Nov. 29 at the University Center Art Gallery at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, 50th and Holmes streets, Kansas City, Mo.
--the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road. Free.
Lecture—"How the Media Portrays Women...Does it Affect Self-Esteem?" 7 tonight at the Pine Room in the Kansas Union. Presented by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center.
--the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road. Free.
Lecture— "Undergraduate and Graduate Women Students: Are You on the Stress Express?" 7 tonight at the Malott Room in the Kansas Union. Presented by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center.
PERFORMANCES
--the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road. Free.
Department of Music and Dance presents the Visiting Artists Series, featuring Matthew Dirst. 7:30 p.m. Friday at
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University Theatre Series presents "West Side Story," 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Crafton-Preyer Theatre inside Murphy Hall. Tickets $15, $14 and $7.50.
Department of Music and Dance presents the Concert Wind Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Lied Center. Tickets $5 and $3.
Kansas City Symphony presents a NightLife Pops concert, 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Music Hall, 13th and Central streets, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets $12-$28.
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Missouri Repertory Theatre presents "A Christmas Carol," Dec. 1 to Dec. 24, at the Helen F. Spencer Theatre at the Center for the Performing Arts, 50th and Cherry streets, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets $16-$32. Ticket prices will increase after Nov. 13.
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