Piracanga: Check Mate For Johnny

I SUPPOSE I'm fortunate. I have no hair - at least on my head. Or I choose not to have any by shaving frequently..

Not everyone would share in my joy, of course. But my good fortune is largely down to shaven-headedness being more fashionable now than I can ever remember. Thanks, Michael Jordan - or whoever was responsible.

And here at Piracanga the trend has taken off dramatically. Several weeks ago there was a course being run called Avatar. It was widely attended. It's an ancient teaching which covered a variety of subjects like manifesting, self-healing, increasing your vibration, reverse ageing etc.

During this course many of the participants, male and female, were invited to shave their heads, the reasoning being that our ego attaches itself to our appearance and it can be hugely liberating to make the break. Our hair also apparently stores lots of dead energy, which is good to release. There are other reasons, too, but I won't go into them here and now.

However, during the Avatar, as more people turned up looking like monks, two workers in the Piracanga kitchen decided to challenge each other to a game of chess, which had also been growing in popularity.

It wasn't going to be an ordinary game, though. They decided to have a wager where the winner got to shave the head of the loser.

And so, one bright morning, they set up the board and half the village turned out to watch the best-of-three encounter: Johnny, 17 and ginger-haired from Israel via Hamburg, against Alex, the tattooed perpetual smiler and punk rock fan from Brazil. 

Johnny was super-confident and I'm partly to blame for that, having played them both one lunchtime. Johnny beat me and immediately after, I defeated Alex - in five moves!

Alex, though, was cunning. He took 'secret' lessons from Sam, the village master, and came prepared for the showdown.

Johnny, with  his carefully manicured mop of hair, started to get anxious after he resigned (as he was in a losing position) in the first game. And then in the second he made some mistakes and the reality that he was about to be stroking his scalp began to set in.

Poor Johnny lost and, kicking and screaming, fought to hold on to his hair. But no-one would let him. He had to lose with honour.

Eventually, the clippers made the first tracks through the orange mass on his head and Johnny, reluctantly still, became transformed.

For two days he walked around embarrassed, wearing a bandana, but then his head went naked and so many people remarked how much better he looked. Despite all Johnny's fears, his hair soon grew back. 

Footnote: Alex, by choice, shaved his head a few weeks later and Johnny's chess has improved dramatically. Alex is still smiling continually and Johnny has returned to Germany.  

 

Comments

[Bill Moss]

For redheads, shaving one's head is a bigger risk: not enough melanin to effectively stave off the sun's actinic rays--and melanoma (nevermind brain bake) is a checkmate of a more final sort. Think of Johnny's hair as a hat that won't blow off--after all, if we're all naked under our clothes, then all our heads are naked under their respective coverings, ¿No? (Being fair complexioned, formerly red-headed, and less endowed with protective hair than I was in my lushly-mopped youth, when in the sun, I wear my short hair and fair scalp under a hat.)

[Andreea]

umm, johnny went back to germany... one more elvis has left the building..
interesting, the avatar course. maybe you can tell us more about it, in a new post. that is if you attended and if you care to.
love to you all. miss you much

[クロエ marcie]

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クロエ marcie http://www.vanformer.net/%e6%ad%a3%e8%a6%8f%e5%93%81-%e3%82%af%e3%83%ad%e3%82%a8-marcie%e3%82%af%e3%83%ad%e3%82%a8-%e3%83%90%e3%83%ac%e3%83%b3%e3%82%bf%e3%82%a4%e3%83%b3%e3%83%96%e3%83%a9%e3%83%83%e3%82%af%e3%83%95%e3%82%a9/