Hair

For some twenty years, I have been bald. This started with my second wife, who decided, as I began to lose hair on the top of my head, that she preferred total baldness to partial baldness. It made me, she said, 'look less bald'. Go figure. My third wife carried on the preference. Kind of a Bruce Willis look, you know. In fact, Indonesian acquaintances noted this and began to call me 'Bruce Willis', or more simply 'Om Bruce'. 'Om' is a word originating from the Dutch colonial period and means 'uncle', although an Indonesian uncle will be called 'Paman'. 

Lately, however, newly adrift from the preferences of any wife whatsoever, I began to grow my hair again; and what has surprised me, after twenty years of baldness, is that I actually do have hair to grow. Admittedly, it is rather thin on top, but grows just the same as ever on the sides and in the back. And it is still mostly light brown rather than gray. 

I have also grown a beard and mustache. For most of my adult life, I had a beard and mustache--right up until my third marriage, to a woman who did not like beards and mustaches. These, unlike the hair on my head, are completely gray, imparting a rather dignified appearance, if I do say so myself. 

So successful have my hairy attempts been that, after a couple of months, I have had to buy a comb! As I recall from times long past, combs are things that are lost on a regular basis, so I will likely find myself buying more combs in the future. 

I've grown a costume for my face, to paraphrase the old song. I've assumed a new identity, or, rather, resumed an old one.