Friday Thoughts And A Shave

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Headlines screamed about a flashy gambling scandal, but we weren’t buying the outrage. Instead, we turned the mic toward something personal and practical: the day we chose to stop hiding hair loss and start living bald on purpose. From the last clumps in the shower to a no-nonsense barbershop shave and an unremarkable lunch in public, this is a grounded look at confidence, not a self-help monologue. No melodrama, no pity—just honest steps, clean lines, and a lighter head.

We share why empty scandal bait fails to earn our attention, especially when bigger harms deserve the spotlight. Then we walk through the real decision points of alopecia: taking hard photos, trusting instincts, picking a barber who executes, and discovering that strangers mostly don’t care—liberating proof that much of the fear is a mirror-made story. Wigs get a reset, too: wear them for joy, not survival. That spirit launched The Bald Icon, a space to normalize bald beauty without turning it into a crisis.

If you’re teetering between one more cover-up and a fresh start, you’ll find practical tips, hard-won perspective, and a few laughs about expectations versus reality. We close with a simple prompt to get you talking and remembering the journeys that shaped you. Hit play, share with someone who needs a nudge toward self-trust, and tell us your take. If this conversation helped you breathe easier, follow the show, leave a quick review, and send this to a friend who’s ready to choose clarity over camouflage.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Well, hello and good morning.
It's Friday.
We made it through the week.
Hallelujah.
Thank you.
All right.
Well, uh, I'm sorry, but Isearched and searched and
searched this morning throughthe New York Post app, and I
just couldn't find anything totalk about worthwhile.
It's all a bunch of crap, iswhat it is.

(00:21):
Now, the big story all over theNew York app and the New York
Post app is the uh gambling ringwith the mafia and the NBA
players and coaches that CashBertel has found out and
exposed, and he is just so proudof himself for that.
Held a press conferenceyesterday.
I missed it.
I was at work and doing otherthings, but I caught a little

(00:42):
bit of highlights here andthere.
And I'm like, I don't care.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don'tcare about a bunch of
millionaires going out, spendingtheir money, getting scammed by
con artists, and this whole bigsetup with the cheating and the

(01:05):
bringing in.
Look, if you want to go do thatwith your money and you know
it's not right, because you knowit's illegal, but you're gonna
do it anyway.
Go spend your money and go plago gamble with these players and
millionaires, that's on you.
I don't I think the FBI has morenefarious things they should go

(01:26):
after.
How about child sex traffickers?
How about that?
Now, yes, I believe the mafiawas involved, and I don't know
if drugs were involved or not.
I don't know.
But look, they're playing cards,they're gambling, yes, they're
getting scammed, yes, it's abig, huge cheating thing, but I
don't care.
That's not my world.

(01:47):
My world is everything else, Ithink.
Not everything else, but howabout protecting children?
How what happened to all thekids you were gonna go after and
find?
I mean, I know that's on TomHoman, which we haven't heard
from in a while, have we?
Um where's all the 300,000children that you were gonna go
after and find?
Where are they?

(02:07):
Where's all the sex child sextraffickers?
Where are they?
Do that.
I don't care about somebasketball players and some
coaches and millionairesspending their money getting
cheated on these cheating scams,gambling, playing poker and
cards or blackjack or whateverthey're playing.
I don't care.
All right, we need to move on.
And look, I have nothing to talkabout.

(02:29):
I I really have nothing to talkabout.
Some of these headlines on theNew York app are just pointless.
Let's go over here and I'll reada couple of headlines to you
that uh I've scanned over andI'm like, nope, don't want to
talk about that.
Nope, don't want to talk aboutthat.
Uh, it's just a lot of crap.
A lot of crap, a lot of crap.

(02:49):
No, I'm not gonna read anythingto you.
Oh, here's a couple.
I'll read these three.
Uh video captures big rig drivenby illegal immigrant ploughing
into vehicle on Californiafreeway, killing three.
We talked they talked about thatyesterday all over the news.
Bikini clad influencer caughtafter manhunt over allegedly
running drug trafficking ring.
I don't care.

(03:10):
White House officials suggestmarried ex cop rep posted half
naked photos on grinder.
What is the White House havingto do officials having to do
with an ex married cop and nakedphotos on grinder?
I don't care.
What is what I think people arejust desperate to tie something
to the White House and DonaldTrump.
This is getting ridiculous.

(03:31):
I uh you know, I don't careabout an ex-cop and nude photos
on grinder.
I don't care.
Alright, I'm sorry, and then Ithought about reading some Dear
Abbies to you, and those arejust ridiculous too.
So instead, what is weighing onmy heart right now this morning,
I guess I'll talk to you about.
I really don't want to, but Iwill, is I was scrolling through

(03:54):
Instagram as well, and there wasa I I've started a new account
on Instagram, by the way, calledthe Bald Icon, where I am
talking about baldness, me beingbald, uh alopecia, excuse me,
but in a more confident way,because I see way too many, and
I'm sorry guys, I know that Ihave a lot of guys listening.

(04:16):
I'm sorry.
This is may probably more of agirl topic than a guy topic, but
here we go.
If you want to tune out, Iunderstand.
So I started a new Instagramaccount, like I said, trying to
be more uh positive about thehair loss for women because I
have seen way too many women, alot of them, who go through hair

(04:37):
loss and it's so traumatic dratraumatic for them that some of
them I read this one woman saidshe didn't let her husband see
her without her wig for fouryears.
Y'all.
Now I understand I understandfor some most women, I'll say

(04:58):
most women, I guess losing hairis tr is very traumatic.
But I don't know why.
It doesn't need to be.
Now I remember when I had hairand my hair was falling out.
I suppose I remember feeling alittle weird about it, sure, but
I was able to still put my hairin a ponytail, hide the bald

(05:18):
spots until I couldn't anymore.
And then I was kind of backedinto a corner and I had to make
a decision.
Do I try to keep this and justwear wigs all the time?
My my instinct, naturalautomatic instinct was no, I
don't want to do that.
And I don't listen to myselfenough either, by the way.
But I have started to listen tomyself by natur my instincts.

(05:43):
And so I finally, I guess I'dhad enough of my hair, and I
finally told my husband, Ithat's it, I'm done.
Because I was in the bathroomand I was in the shower, and
there was hair falling out allthe time.
And it means I'd taken picturesof myself finally, was able to
take pictures of my bald headfrom a you know around the whole

(06:06):
area, and I saw it in pictures,and I thought, that is it.
That's it.
I'm shaving it off.
What's gonna happen?
I can't go on like this.
This is ridiculous.
And so I told him, I said,that's it, I'm gonna buy you a
shaver and you're gonna shave myhair off for me.
And he's like, No, I'm not gonnado that.
Let's let a professional do it.

(06:28):
Let's go to the barber and lethim do it.
Now, my husband was all for it,he was very supportive.
I have the most supportivehusband, I think, ever.
Because I understand somehusbands would not go for that,
and I I trust me, I have storiesabout that.
But anyway, um, so we go to thebarber.

(06:49):
I take a hat with me too, justin case I walk out and just in
case it shaves off, and I heshaves it off, and I'm like, oh,
traumatic, I can't take it all.
I have a hat to wear.
So we're sitting there in thewaiting area, waiting for our
turn, and finally the chairopens up, and it's the owner of
the barber shop, and he's like,All right, he looks at my
husband, he said, All right,let's who's next.

(07:11):
And I'm the one that gets up andsits in the chair, and he kind
of looks surprised for a second,and he says, Well, what are we
doing here?
And I took off my hat and Ishowed him all the boss spots.
I said, I just want this shavedoff.
And you know what he did?
He said, Okay, took out histhing and started shaving.
Now, if I had gone to a beautyparlor and requested that, they

(07:32):
would have said, Are you sure,honey?
Are you sure you want to dothat?
I don't know.
I don't they they'd make such abig frickin' deal over it, and
they would be hesitant to do it.
So that's why I love thebarbers.
That's why I love this barber.
Because he didn't hesitate.
He did not hesitate.
He just said, Okay, and went toit.

(07:53):
Now he didn't, he kept my backto the mirror until it was all
said and done.
And so when it was done, heturned me around, and my first
automatic reaction was, Oh,that's not too bad.
It's not bad.
I don't look too bad.
I look okay.
And so we went out to lunchimmediately afterwards uh to a

(08:13):
restaurant, and I did not wearmy hat in.
And guess what?
No one burst into flames, no onefainted, no one got up out of
their booth and ran out of therestaurant yelling and
hollering, Oh my god, there's abald woman in the restaurant.
Nothing like that happened.
No one even noticed.
And why would they, especiallyin today's world where you see

(08:36):
men out here wearing dresses andwigs and makeup and fake large
prosthetic boobs and trying tobe women or the opposite women
trying to be men?
I mean, there's a lot more goingon.
Nobody's gonna notice yourfreaking bald head, okay?
And I there was this one,there's so many women on here

(08:57):
that I see online on thesesocial media apps who have
alopecia and they're putting onwigs and they're showing you
what you look like with you knowwhat they look like with wigs.
And I keep wanting to say sobadly, you look so much more
beautiful without the wig.
Now they look good with the wigtoo, don't get me wrong, but
they're just stunning withoutit.

(09:17):
So I'm gonna think I'm gonnastart one where I because they
show them being bald and thenlater having the wig on.
I think I'm gonna do theopposite.
I think I'm gonna have the wigon and then take it off, do a
reveal like that.
But anyway, I know I've gone onand on and on.
I would really like to be anadvocate for alopecia and

(09:39):
dealing with it without all thedrama around it.
I was watching one Instagramreel today, this morning, about
this young woman who hasalopecia, and she was in front
of the camera, bald, beautiful,but she was spieling all of this
psycho babble crap about howit's life-altering,

(09:59):
life-changing, and you need tosurround yourself with safe
people and be good to yourselfand talk these good like shut
up, lady.
It's hair.
It's it's not like life-alteringwould be having cancer.
Life altering would be having acar accident and having your leg
amputated.
Life altering is coming backfrom war and having to deal with

(10:23):
pe that's life altering.
Losing your hair, I'm sorry, isnot life-altering.
It's not all right, I gotta go.
I'm sorry, I rambled on and on.
Actually, we need to have thequestion of the day.
I would actually be a terribleadvocate for alopecia because I
would just say get over it.
And yes, I know I have uh gonethrough several wigs myself, but

(10:44):
I look at the wig wearing now aslike an accessory, like shoes or
a handbag.
I really prefer myself justwithout a wig.
But there's one wig that I dohave that I really, really like,
but I'd rather just go out bald.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Thank you for letting me be thislike little sounding board this
morning.

(11:05):
Alright, question of the day, Ipromise this time.
Okay, what is the furthest,farthest, furthest or farthest
you have driven on a road trip?
Obviously, I go from Alabama toOhio a lot.
Um I think that's probably thefurthest I've driven I've ever
driven.
I'm sure well, no, when I wasyounger with my mama and papa

(11:27):
when I was a kid, and wetraveled during the summertime
while they did their um they didtheir uh mall exhibits and my
grandpa, my papa did likewoodworking and they would go
during the summer and do allthat stuff.
We traveled that way.
But as far as me driving myself,it would be to here to Ohio or
West Virginia, not here, butmaybe um I don't know.

(11:50):
I've really not driven that far.
Now I've been to California, butI don't think I've ever driven
out there.
I have flown, but not driven.
So the question is, what's thefarthest you have driven on a
road trip?
Forgive me if I didn't say allthat correctly.
Um, there was something else Iwanted to say too, but I have it
has escaped me.
And it had something to do withdriving and road trips, but now

(12:12):
I've forgotten.
Okay.
I am just scattered all over theplace today.
I don't know what's wrong withme.
I guess I'm just excited it'sFriday.
All right, thanks for listeningto me ramble on and on.
My goodness gracious.
Not not much longer to go, only70 more episodes.
All right.

(12:32):
I'll be back on Monday,hopefully.
Hopefully, the gentleman I willremember to do one on Sunday for
Brood Awakening.
All right, thanks for listening.
Bye.