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November 10, 1995
Web posted at: 6:55 p.m. EDT
From Correspondent Jeanne Moos
WESTBURY, Long Island (CNN) -- It's enough to cause bald men to tear their hair out. We're talking about the news that guys with hair to spare are getting rid of theirs for charity.
The bald heads reflect like the glass of the building they work in. Practically an entire brokerage firm is losing its hair, but the sudden hair loss has not left them at a loss for words.
It's not stress that's causing the hair loss; it's actually stressful here to keep your hair. Baldness has become the trademark at Landmark International Equities and it all started with a bet.
Mike Desmond was the first to have his head shaved. Landmark's top broker, Eric Aronson told Mike he'd donate a $1,000 to charity if Mike would shave off his hair. Ever since then, the office has been abuzz. In a firm with about 100 employees, more than 70 have had their heads shaved.
One guy hopes his hair would come back quick -- he's getting married in six months. But he thinks the guys in his firm didn't look too bad with their smooth heads. His girlfriend feels otherwise: "Their personality makes up for the fact that they don't have hair."
Kelly Reinsmith resisted for a while because he was supposed to be an usher in a wedding. "It's my best friend's wedding, and he knows how ugly my cranium is," Reinsmith says.
But when the top broker says shave for charity, well, it's better to lose your hair than to lose face.
Being hairless may be hair-raising, but it helps when three quarters of your colleagues are egg-heading you on. Aronson is donating $1,000 to charity for anyone willing to shave his head. Which charities they'll donate to hasn't been decided.
"Hey, if I make three or four million, if I donate one or two to charity, why not? You're going to have people lining up. You have to call first for an appointment," Aronson says.
At salons, women are welcome, but the one who came closest to having her head shaved backed out. "Right now I'm keeping it 'cause my mother found out," she says.
So how do their spouses react when they see their loved one come home with a chrome dome?
"I just got married four weeks ago. Believe me. My wife thinks it looks bad," says one man.
"At night she rubs it while I'm sleeping. I feel her rubbing it," joked another.
"My wife can't stop laughing at me, to tell the truth."
"I'm a single guy, and with this haircut, probably stay that way a while."
Then there's another guy who has a before-and-after picture with him.
"This is me; this was me," he says.
Jackie Phelan is his girlfriend, or should we say, was (510K QuickTime movie)?
"It's just that he was a good-looking guy with hair. I'm not saying we're going to break up. But look how cute he was with hair."
The secretaries, meanwhile, can't tell all the bald heads apart. So how do they switch phone calls?
"Just yell out their names," one says.
Well, at least these guys really can say, I gave at the office. Make that, shave.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.