Ladies and Gentlemen, The Comb Over

It was much tougher trying to choose something to write about for Yuck than it was for Wow. It was not tough because of the lack of what I can write about but the sheer abundance of stuff that I absolutely hate seeing.

Let me give you a quick rundown of stuff that I thought of writing about.

1. The masculine wash.I just don't get why men need anything other than soap, I just don't.
2. The MMDA urinals. Yup, the dreaded (formerly pink and blue, now green) things that you see in the streets. However, upon closer inspection (don't laugh!) of the said urinals, I saw that the already the normal urinals, the kind we see in regular bathrooms. They no longer had the disgusting rubber funnel looking urine catchers that are absolutely disgusting.
3. Charice Pempengco's Botox injection, for obvious reasons.

But then I decided to write about something I really hate seeing. And yes, "yuck" is the first word I think about when I see this.

I am talking about the Comb Over. You may not be familiar with the term but I think you've definitely seen it. I'm betting one of your dad's friends is even sporting it.

This is the Comb Over.



This dude is known as the Baldy Man, a Mr. Bean like character but his story revolves around his obsession with his hair.

There are more samples of this hair style. Here is perhaps the most well-known comb over in the known universe, Donald Trump's.



The comb over is basically a hair style for balding men. What they do is grow a part of their hair extremely long, then comb it over the bald parts to make it seem like their not bald at all. Click here for definitions from the urban dictionary.

Here is a quick step-by-step guide.


Usually, balding guys comb over from the side, but if hair from the side of your head does jot want to grow, you can also comb over from the back for a more awkward look, like this guy.



In extreme cases, guys get addicted to combing over that they could no longer stop. Here is the around the world comb over.

And still some love it so much that they start giving their pets the same hair style.

The poor dog looks pissed at his new do.

Anyway, here are the reasons why I do not like the comb over.

1. It looks unnatural.
2. The guys who sport it can;t accept the fact that they are balding.
3. They're really not fooling anyone. Everyone who see them know what's up, yet they pretend like nothing is wrong.
4. It's ugly.
5. It attracts attention, specially when the long strands of hair aren't where they're supposed to be.
6. The comb over is a half-baked solution to a problem. You can do things if you're balding. First, you can learn to accept it. Take it all off and get a shine. There are lots of men who are happily bald. Second, if you really do not like being bald, there are measure you can take to grow your hair back. Mark Gil now has hair, if he did it, you can to.

Going forward, I think these are the things that I do not like in general that I see with the comb over.

1. I don't like it when people could not accept themselves. They try to do stuff that would hide parts of themselves when what they should do is accept it and move forward.
2. I don't like it when people try to get away with stuff when it is obvious that other people know it was them (example: farting on a crowded elevator and trying to look innocent, politicians stopping the right to information bill and trying to make it seem that they aren't thieves, etc.)
3. Things that are ugly. Comb overs are ugly. I've never seen one that I liked.
4. Doing things because other people are doing it too. I know some people who prefer comb overs simply because they've seen other balding men do it. I really do not like it when people start doing stuff no because they want to but because they saw someone else do it.

And that, my friends, is why I think the comb over hair style must die.

Mind Mapping about Mind Mapping

Well, here it is. Please try hard not to laugh.

On Cognitive Fitness

People go to gyms to exercise their body. Why? Because they want to be healthy. People who get regular exercise would most likely have better functioning bodies than people who do not get exercise. And when they grow older, people who got in the most exercise would have better bodies that people (like me) who did not.

Same is true with the brain. It needs exercise to keep it sharp; not using it will dull it down.

Gilkey and Klits listed down four mental exercises that could ensure us that our brains will be as functional as 40 years from now.


Use experiences to grow your brain

This exercise is pretty easy to understand. Use your experiences to grow your brain means that we should think about what we do and determine if these are good or bad, were they worthwhile or not, was it fun or not, among other things. We should think about the things we do in retrospect because this will help us exercise our brains.

Another way to do this is exercise the brain by using other people's experiences. Case in point. I box for fun. I do not do it to exercise or anything like that, I do it because I love the sport and I want to learn as much as possible. As you many know, I watch insane amounts of boxing. i'll watch boxing all day if i could but it probably won't be healthy. anyway, when i watch boxing, I rewatch things that take my attention. If I see a new combination or nice footwork, or good head movement, I watch it over and over to memorize it. Then I try doing it while i'm boxing.

i think this is a good example on how I exercise my brain through the experience of other people.


Work hard at play

I like this part of the exercise because play is, well, fun! I absolutely love playing scrabble with my grandfather. I get my ass handed to me most of the time but every time we play, I can't help but be in awe of my grandfather's memory. I often run out of words but he does not. He'll always have some word to form. In the beginning, I had to check the dictionary to see if the words are correct. But then every time I checked, the word would be there so i just stopped.

Now I have no idea if my grandfather is bullshitting me or not.

Still, I think it is his way of exercising his brain. We rarely get to play anymore but I still know he is one of the sharpest old people i know.

Seek novelty

Seeking novelty could be scary for some. People often brush aside new stuff thinking that they won't understand it anyway. Old people don't think they could learn how to use computers but they should realize that this is important to exercising they brain. People should be open to new things.

We do not have to be experts in all if the new things we try, but it does not mean we should not try it out and learn how it goes.

Search patterns

Seeking patterns is somehow related to what we discussed two weeks ago. I think seeking patterns is only a different of saying looking for intersections. Looking for relationships between seemingly unrelated things is an exercise that we should all do. Taking Sun Tzu's Art of War, getting it out of it's original context, then using it for business is an useful example of seeking patterns.

These four steps are very good methods on how to stay sharp. We all want to be as sharp for years to go. I think learning about this now is important because we can start now.

World Cup WOW!

First of all, congratulations to Spain for winning this year's World Cup. I was rooting for Germany but that damn octopus didn't cooperate.

Anyway, once every four years, the world goes into World Cup frenzy. Even Filipinos, who are not really that interested with football, watch. Many do not really understand how the game is played or what-not but they want to be a part of the action.

Because of the worldwide attention it gets, advertisers of course try to get into the action by producing commercials that have a World Cup theme. One example is that most recent Rexona commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCN_ALDrQFQ



One day I was walking around a department store with my sisters when a saleslady approached me and said they had a promo on Rexona deodorants (yes, I'm writing about deodorants because I'm unpredictable like that!).



Why do I like it? Here are a few reasons.

1. Because it was on sale. 150 pesos for two bottles of deodorant is an absolute steal.
2. It did what it needed to do. I think I don't need to explain that further.
3. It has a cool factor. Spray on deodorant is better than roll-on, at least in my opinion.
4. The bottle had a really good design. I don't mind having it inside my room.
5. It smelled good.
6. It felt natural. Some other deodorant roll-ons take a while to dry. I remember staying in front of the electric fan for minutes so that the stupid roll-on will dry up.

With this list I think I can formulate a general list things i look for in any product.

First, it should serve its purpose. It isn't a chair if it can't support your butt.

Second, it should be something that I can carry around and not be embarrassed that I'm carrying it around. A product can be the best in the market but if it's packaged poorly I don't think i'll use it. It needs to be good and look good.

Third, I think products need to feel natural. People want to feel as natural as possible. If a product is good but feels weird, it most likely would not sell.

Fourth, it needs to be well priced. I don't think i need to explain that any further. Some people think that a $20,000 designer bag is a steal with a 50% discount while other people think that's still way too much. Point is, we all have our different ideas about how much is too much and the price of the product must be below that.