A month ago while I was taking photos for my SEO spotlight article on Legacy Coffee Co., I met April Milam as she was ordering her drink. I learned that she is a professional photographer who lives just a mile and a half away from my family.
So I thought it would be cool to shoot a video tour of her home studio, to include in my massive library of videos on one of my YouTube channels:
And then when I began to fathom the logistics in being able to get newborns and young children to pose to her photos, I decided to make a video about that in itself:
Meeting April when I did (which just happened to be in the month of April) was perfect timing, because my wife had just said that we need to get some good professional photos done of our family; and especially of our daughter, who just turned 2 years old on April 24th.
As you can see, April did an amazing job.
In the moment, I had no idea that she was getting such beautiful images of our children. As the parent, I was just hoping my daughter didn’t have a meltdown during the photo shoot.
Something that really stands out to me about April’s approach is how efficient she is. We were literally at her home studio for 28 minutes from the time we pulled in the driveway until the time we left.
We had originally planned on doing an outdoor shoot, but that plan got rained out. As you can see though, April’s home studio served us quite well.
She knows what she’s doing.
So obviously, if you’re in the Nashville area, April is a solid choice for a photographer!
Here’s a link to our family’s entire photo shoot on her website:
For the past couple of months now in your preschool class, you and your friends have enjoyed the presence of Gus Gus, a dwarf gerbil.
Each morning when I take you into the classroom, our immediate routine is to for me to lift you up to the cage so you can ask, “Gus Gus?”
That translates as, “Are you awake yet, Gus Gus?”
The answer is usually, “Well, now I am!” as we watch the wood chips move around and see two beady eyes looking back at us.
One morning we even walked in to see a clear blue plastic roll right across the floor as we opened the door, as Gus Gus raced to the other side of the room as part of his early morning exercise.
Gus Gus finds his way into daily conversations, too. I use him as an interesting subject to help you formulate sentences.
For example, anytime you see a pick-up truck now, you point, and proudly shout, “Truck? Truck! Truck!”
So from there, I started saying, “Gus Gus drives a truck?”
You obviously liked the concept, then decided to repeat that ridiculous thought.
Now anytime you see a pick-up truck, you know what to say to me:
“Truck! Truck! Gus Gus drive truck.”
It finally occurred to me as we were playing with your toys in the living room, to bring life to the rat puppet which I originally got right before you were born, as I was planning on it being a character in your brother’s superhero series on YouTube.
You were amazed to learn was Gus Gus secretly living in our house the whole time, but also that he could talk, and even say your name.
And even when you realized that you yourself could stick your hand into Gus Gus and control his mouth, you still were every bit excited to announce, “It’s Gus Gus!”
It was just about a month ago that you had a pretty cool Spring Break. On the way back from Ruby Falls in the Mazda CX-5, we actually had to drive right past my Uncle Johnny’s house near Chattanooga; which is also near Rock City, where our family would visit a couple of days later. So I let him know in advance, and he was ready for us when we stopped by.
He has the largest collection of classic cars compared to anyone else I personally know. I figured especially at your age now, getting to see his car collection would really be an awesome thing to do.
You obviously were amazed with each car Uncle Johnny proceeded to show you; which included several class Mustangs.
But I think your favorite of them all was his 1993 Ford 150 pick-up truck.
But our visit didn’t just consist of a car museum collection alone.
Uncle Johnny was thoughtful enough, and brave enough, to insist that you drive us around in his golf utility vehicle. Granted, I sat next to you and overtook the wheel and brake pedal for much of the chaotic drive, which included us missing a tree by a few inches.
That’s why I took you to my Uncle Johnny’s house, though.
I knew it would create a memorable experience for you at this age. I have to believe that years from now, you’ll say to me, “Daddy, was that a dream that time we were at that guy’s house and he had all these cars and trucks and then he even let me drive this little car across a field, to another garage where there was this truck I got to stand in?”
Then I can say, “No, that was real.” Here are the pictures to prove it.
As of this week, I’ve decided to grow my hair back out from the zero guard buzz cut, to a more mainstream hairstyle.
My wife’s request may have had something to do with that decision…
In addition to my son’s recent drawing of our family where he purposely drew me with a hat on…
But for the past 3 months, I have consistently chosen on a weekly basis to be bald. I even went to The Board Room in Nashvilleon West End and got my head clean shaven at one point.
I love not having to think about going to get a haircut every 4 weeks, or having to pay for a haircut, or having to spend the time to get a haircut, or having to wonder if my hair is messed up after walking outside in the wind.
The zero guard buzz cut served as a perfect outward representation of how I feel on the inside.
Even though I can still grow hair, I personally prefer the look and feel of no hair.
In my opinion, the buzz version of me with the zero guard buzz cut is when I also have a 2 week-old beard:
I even wrote a cool original song about how great it is to buzz off your hair:
So if you’re considering trying out the buzz cut look, let me tell you about a must-have that I finally discovered here at the end of my 90 days of baldness:
Even my wife immediately acknowledged how even my hair looked after I used the device.
It’s really easy and fun to use. And if you’re not ready to go all the way down to a zero guard (no guard), you can opt to use one of the standard length guards included with it.
Be warned though: Once you take the leap and decide to buzz it all off, you’re probably going to get addicted. That’s definitely what happened to me.
You begin to realize, as a man, that hair seems to being pointless; just a waste of time, money, and energy.
If you’re possibly interested in making this purchase, I’ll make it easy for you by including the link below, so you can get straight to Amazon to find the best deal on one:
Back in 2014, researchers in Canada were attempting to compare the behavior of men who watch pornography regularly, with men who have never seen pornography at all. However, they were unable to find one man who had never watched pornography.
Too bad they didn’t know I existed, because I would have been perfect for their study.
I understood from the very beginning, as a preteen, that viewing such unrealistic images and ideas of women would ultimately psychologically rewire my brain, potentially like the equivalent of a computer virus.
To me, it was always beyond religion and morality. It was always about psychology instead.
It’s true, I’ve never looked at, nor watched, pornographic material. I’ve had multiple opportunities, when no one else was around, but I can’t really say it was ever a true temptation to me.
I have always been fundamentally opposed to the idea.
On my main YouTube channel which officially crossed the 4,000 subscriber mark last month, I serve as a mentor and life coach, helping younger, insecure balding men realize that their identity and how attractive they are to women actually has a lot more to do with confidence, kindness, and skill sets.
Recently, I discovered a subtle trend in which my subscribers were openly talking in the comments section, about looking at and watching pornography. Then I made the connection:
Why is it that some guys go bald young and it doesn’t seem to affect their confidence at all (and therefore they don’t watch my channel), yet others barely show any signs of hair loss but they freak out about the possibility of going bald on a daily basis?
The answer: Most of my subscribers are in their teens and twenties, meaning that they’ve grown up with unlimited access to pornography online, during those crucial years of developing their sense of identity and building confidence in who they are. (The Internet went mainstream in 1997, before most of these guys were even born.)
Compare that to me, a guy who has never looked at or watched pornography.
It makes sense now why my YouTube channel “about hair loss” is so popular: It’s really a YouTube channel that helps young men who may be experiencing hair loss, which is quite common, who are also addicted to or at least regularly exposed to pornography, overcome their insecurity issues; taught from a 37 year-old man who was never psychologically corrupted in the way they have been.
So I began making some videos addressing, and testing, this pattern I was seeing.
Those videos became some of my most popular and received more thumbs up than my other videos.
Some of my viewers confirmed I was correct: That regularly looking at and watching pornography has crushed their ability to be confident in themselves and only reinforces their insecurities about the concept they are experiencing hair loss; or at least, think they are.
To test my theory, I made a video in which I predicted in the title, that 99% of my subscribers were addicted to pornography. I stated in the video that if I were wrong, that out of my 4,000 subscribers, more than 40 would leave a comment proclaiming they do not consume pornography either.
Instead, only 2 people left a comment saying that. So yeah, over 99%.
I then theorized that many of my viewers were drawn to pornography due to some unnamed psychological trauma they experienced as a child (like being abused, their parents divorcing, a close family member dying, etc.), and they never got the proper counsel with a psychiatrist that they needed.
So that childhood trauma was never dealt with or even acknowledged, which psychologically set a pattern in their mindset to be anxious about things they have no control over: like hair loss.
I discovered this connection after reading an article on Huff Post that found the common theme among people who suffer from anxiety or depression is that they live with unresolved psychological trauma from their childhood.
Turns out, men who were overly obsessed with hair loss fit into this category as well.
I consider myself a missionary to the mainstream.
The way I see it, I was put on this Earth to serve others. If I can help thousands of insecure, pornography-addicted young men to acknowledge that pornography is killing their confidence and sense of identity, I can hopefully lead them to a decision to be pornography-free as I am, and eventually, overcome their trigger, which is hair loss.
I say, an attractive man is a confident man- and a confident man doesn’t tolerate the use of pornography in his own life.
So when I’m not being a Family Friendly Daddy Blogger, I’m serving as the host and life coach of a PG-13 rated YouTube channel to help mentor younger men.
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 