For those who have recently met Executive Vice President Dave McFadden, his appearance might not be lacking in anything. But, the familiar cranial glint that everyone sees in the Union during lunchtime was not always as it is now. 

  
Picture a young McFadden, teenaged and smiling his famous million-dollar smile, a full head of hair that rippled in the wind and made young ladies swoon.  Deep down, however, he knew it would not last.  His father was bald.  And it was hereditary.  

  
So hereditary is this gene that even McFadden’s son, Sam, knows his cruel fate.  When he was younger and was asked: “Do you know what you are going to be when you grow up?” young Sam would look at all the men in his family and answer truthfully: “Bald.” 

  
But before Sam was born, when Dave was in his twenties, it finally started to happen. 

  
Still in denial, Dave knew there were ways of hiding such noggin misfortunes.  “I tried wearing a ‘rug,’” he said, glancing upward over his forehead.  “But it turned out that green and orange shag weren’t good colors for me.”  Although the colors were good for the time period, they were way off for his complexion.

Product after product and remedy after remedy he tried, to no avail.  His hair began to get thinner by the day, and he was getting anxious.  But Dave McFadden is not one to lose his head or take life without its punches.

Although his hair was thin for a time before it all went away, he took great pride in its upkeep.  “I used one of those soft bristled cat brushes to comb my hair,” he said. “Seriously.”  The look in his eyes was indeed serious.  “My friends laughed at me, but I loved brushing my hair and then taking a nap on the back of the couch in the sun,” he said.

  
At first, he continued to be in denial.  He tried new and improved remedies, ranging from practices such as deep massages of the scalp that were supposed to awaken the follicles deep, deep down and cause growth, to an organic cranial peel that much resembled a facial mask.  

But the weirdest of them all was a newer, more recent development.  “I tried this stuff called ‘Hair-On,’” he said, absently rubbing his smoothed scalp. “I got it from those Head-On pain relief people. Rub it on your head and hair comes back.  It didn't work—

but I haven't had a headache since.”

It was just destined to be that Dave McFadden would be bald.   Just like his father. 

Over the years, he started to deal with his very unfortunate loss.  He now takes his lack of locks in stride, living his life to the fullest, with or without hair. “My favorite thing about summer is getting a sunburn on my head,” he said, glancing out the window at the dreary early spring sky. “When it's peeling, I spray it with that brown 'hide your bald spot' stuff and it looks like I've got short curly hair for a week.”  This is sight that his family has come to know and ignore.  They have decided just to let him have his moments.

But now, Dave McFadden, although not completely bald, is labeled as such.  If asked though, he will say that it’s just a part of life, and another thing to make a joke about at a presentation.  “People tell me that I look like Mr. Clean,” he says genially. “Or Dr. Evil.  Or Shrek,” he adds with a very, unogre-like smile.  “I like being compared to powerful, handsome men ... and ogres.”

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