So for the past few years I've always thought that girls with shaved heads were rad. Ok timeout, I'm not talking Britney status but I'm more talking Cassie in Chris Brown's "Crawl" music video. Follow? here are some visuals.
I mean come one, if Britney can make it through 2007? you can make it through your Monday. So clearly I was going for the latter look. I had seen absolute babes pull off the side shave so I was determined to be one of those babes. I was thinking about doing it summer 2013 but then if in the off chance I qualified to be on Team USA for Sochi, I didn't want to give off that vibe to world. So I held off. Fast forward summer 2014, Heidi and I had just caught a flight to Rishikesh, India. It's this cool village/town in the Himalayas settled right by the Ganges River. Its embedded with Ashrams which are pretty much schools where kids live and train to be monks. It a pretty magical place, Heidi had heard about it and was pretty dead set on going so I naturally agreed. We went from a plane, to a bus, to a tuk tuk and found ourselves at the Ganges river. At first glance, you look down the river and you see gatherings of people alongside. There is smoke billowing above them and when you take a second look you realize they are burning something. Dead bodies. Ya that's real. Instead of burying their loved ones they will burn them to ashes then dump the remains in the Ganges because it is considered one of the holiest rivers in the world. It is one of those religious traditions your history teacher tells you about in high school but you don't actually believe it? Well she's right, happens. Talk about clean rivers? So we get to Rishikesh and go looking for our Ashram the we are going to stay in. When you stay in one of these Ashrams, you live in these barren dorms then attend meditating and Yoga sessions all day. You eat with the monks (1-2$ meals) and really just try and immerse yourself in what they actually do everyday.
Every night they do this ritual called Aarti. They sing chants for an hour then light offerings and float them down the river. It was a really cool experience. Everyone is sitting cross legged looking out over the Ganges and repeating chants yelled by these young monks. Some of them have drums, some just sit in silence, but ALL of them have shaved heads with a rat tail coming out the bottom. Like I said, real OGs. I wish I could have taken lots of pics but this definitely wasn't a tourist attraction and even the few white people that were there were clearly Hindu and were taking it very seriously. This is what I did manage to snap though
I couldn't get any shots of the chants but after the hour long spiritual session, they all go down the steps to the river and wash their face. They then send off their offerings into the night. They do this every. night. Hinduism is rad. It is definitely one of the few religions in the world where it's actually a way of life. Even if people don't believe in one of their hundreds of gods, they will still do these rituals because its cultural. We ate it up.
So anyways, I start this with the shaved head and I'm going to end it with the shaved head. During one of the days here, we were walking through their tiny one street market and we spot a barber shop, if you could call it that. It was honestly a walk in closet furnished with 3 rusty chairs and 2 crusty old men. So I started thinking, I let the thought sit for a day to see if I actually wanted to do it. So before making big decisions life, you gotta ask your best friend and Grandfather Willow. We call our Dad that because he is so wise. I logged into my Skype account, which I had to change the password cause we all know Skype is a thing of the past. I called my best friend with the 2$ of credit I had left from all those traveling years with Team USA. Her mom picks up, this is literally how the conversation went.
"Hey mama Madsen, it's Kate. I'm in India with Heidi and I'm about to shave my head, what do you think?"
She was all for it, after all it was just hair. It grows back. 2 minute conversation= 62 cents. I had to leave the rest of the credit to call the one that matters most. Popsicle.
We went to grab some naan bread and I gave him a ring. Now when talking to Willow, you gotta have a game plan. You have to be assertive and confident cause then it shows you have done your research. Heidi was coaching me on what to say, "So we were thinking of shaving Kate's head..."
"Nope don't do it"
Our hopes were dashed. He proceeded to be the logical one, and no matter how we tried to convince him, he still said no. We hung up with broken hearts and even though we couldnt reason with him, we still reasoned with ourselves. Our logic trumps Willows. Sorry Pops.
We walked down the damp alley to the closet barber shop and asked if they had a buzzer. They said yes and the cute old man held it up. Honestly guys, it looked like the shaver in the Grinch. You know the one he got for christmas when he was a kid? Visual? ok hold on.
So anyways, I start this with the shaved head and I'm going to end it with the shaved head. During one of the days here, we were walking through their tiny one street market and we spot a barber shop, if you could call it that. It was honestly a walk in closet furnished with 3 rusty chairs and 2 crusty old men. So I started thinking, I let the thought sit for a day to see if I actually wanted to do it. So before making big decisions life, you gotta ask your best friend and Grandfather Willow. We call our Dad that because he is so wise. I logged into my Skype account, which I had to change the password cause we all know Skype is a thing of the past. I called my best friend with the 2$ of credit I had left from all those traveling years with Team USA. Her mom picks up, this is literally how the conversation went.
"Hey mama Madsen, it's Kate. I'm in India with Heidi and I'm about to shave my head, what do you think?"
She was all for it, after all it was just hair. It grows back. 2 minute conversation= 62 cents. I had to leave the rest of the credit to call the one that matters most. Popsicle.
We went to grab some naan bread and I gave him a ring. Now when talking to Willow, you gotta have a game plan. You have to be assertive and confident cause then it shows you have done your research. Heidi was coaching me on what to say, "So we were thinking of shaving Kate's head..."
"Nope don't do it"
Our hopes were dashed. He proceeded to be the logical one, and no matter how we tried to convince him, he still said no. We hung up with broken hearts and even though we couldnt reason with him, we still reasoned with ourselves. Our logic trumps Willows. Sorry Pops.
We walked down the damp alley to the closet barber shop and asked if they had a buzzer. They said yes and the cute old man held it up. Honestly guys, it looked like the shaver in the Grinch. You know the one he got for christmas when he was a kid? Visual? ok hold on.
Except it wasn't clean like that, it had oily Indian hair sticking out of it. Um ok sure. So we braided the part of my hair that we were gonna cut off. Heidi grabbed rusty scissors that most likely had tetanus and cut it off. I had an inch of stubby hair and we instantly started laughing so hard. I looked like a little boy. We then used the grinch shaver to clean it up but the Indian barber had to step in. He helped while we were in disbelief that we actually committed. Heidi tried to put steps in my hair, it was the first time she had done it, we convinced ourselves it looked good. And it did. End of story.
Us still thinking I'm going to bail. Heidi thinking eehhhhh I guess? Me still confused how this barbershop even makes money.
Me thinking "omgomg Im A BOY"
This is probably one of my favourite pictures of us. A look of disbelief but SO much laughter.
Heidi: "I can't believe I actually convinced K8 to shave her head. Oh my gosh I totally convinced her. Wait she listened to me. Wait holy stop, I'm dying"
K8: "I just got hired at Dodger Stadium to be on camera, that was short lived but I DONT CARE CAUSE IM IN INDIA AND IM WITH MY SISTER SO SUE ME"
cheers to 30 cent haircuts.
Heidi: "I can't believe I actually convinced K8 to shave her head. Oh my gosh I totally convinced her. Wait she listened to me. Wait holy stop, I'm dying"
K8: "I just got hired at Dodger Stadium to be on camera, that was short lived but I DONT CARE CAUSE IM IN INDIA AND IM WITH MY SISTER SO SUE ME"
cheers to 30 cent haircuts.