Wait... Why Did He Shave and Change His Hair Color?

I am a middle-aged man, with an appropriate mixture of grey in my hair. And I have worn some form of facial hair almost continuously since I was first able to grow a scraggly beard. But, for the moment, I have changed my look.

This has nothing to do with running for Lewes city council and everything to do with playing a small role as a navy seaman in the Possum Point Players production of South Pacific. We open on April 4, get your tickets!

The directors have asked me to shave and remove the grey from my hair and I have done so. This is the first time I've been clean-shaven since March of 1988, when I played a Russian soldier in the Possum's Fiddler on the Roof. And I've had some sort of hair-color camouflage applied to hide the grey.

I have mixed feelings. I'm not without vanity and the idea of being younger is appealing. But I'm also a realist: I know that I am not a young man. And, The Lovely Karen has pointed out that I have a baby-face. That's a major reason for the beard in the first place. As a couple, we've always been proud to own our grey (and blame it on our kids).

So both the grey hair and likely the facial hair will return after the play is done. The hair color will fade (luckily, it doesn't have to grow out). And I expect I'll grow some sort of facial hair again. Exactly what will be decided in consultation with my wife and daughters. After all, they have to look at this face.

Bonus irony: Those of us old enough to remember TV commercials in the 1970s will recall the Clairol commercial which turned the Song "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" into "I'm Gonna Wash That Grey Right Out of My Hair."