Bye bye piercings...
If I'm pitching something to a prospective client or debating some technical issue with another engineer or inspector, I don't need to be seen as the young/crazy guy. I need to be seen as a professional and even though I will never be a suit & tie, white-collar professional, I can definitely clean myself up a bit and find a way to look good/cool (IMO) without looking strange. Don't get me wrong, it takes a lot for me to personally think "gosh that person looks strange" but I deal with way too many conservative/traditional folks (e.g bankers, business people etc...) and I think the piercings were ultimately starting to get in the way.
It's unfortunate, but just like the long hair, the piercings would be fine if I was just a worker in the field, but I'm the guy in charge and I need to look more like what people expect to see. Maybe if I was a bit less physically intimidating (i.e. scary looking) I could get away with things like that, but as it is, with my height and my build, I'm pretty much stuck looking like I could break most people in two (especially if I'm scowling/thinking) so I have to consciously pull myself back from the "leather-clad tattooed & pierced biker" look and go for the "clean-cut competent professional that we feel comfortable hiring" look.
So, yeah. I'm pretty much cool with the change, but I still feel weird that I finally did it (I'd been thinking about it for a couple of months already). Fortunately I can't really tell the difference and so far I haven't missed them at all (so that's good). I think I've missed my beard or my goatee more whenever I've just shaved them.
Somedays being an adult sucks... but over all, i think i prefer to be me now than me then.
Yeah, I guess that has something to do with it too. The segment of the population our age who still does the crazy things from our youth is invariably a segment that you aren't all that crazy to be identified with.
Kind of like when you see a lot of older guys with greying ponytails and you almost automatically think a) this guy is lost in the 60s, or b) he's a creepy guy who hits on teenage girls.
It's hard to properly pull of certain looks as you get older and have more responsability etc... Damn it, yet another thing to dislike about getting older (but even with a house payment, car payment, etc... I still refuse to "grow up"!)
Hell, I like the way I look now (at work and in general I just softened the evil/mean biker look). It's nice being able to choose to dress certain ways because it gets me what I want, I guess it's just weird when the choices start to move towards more mainstream looks. Although I think in both our cases we're inclined to head towards mainstream for practical reasons and then veer off when we see something a little anachronistic and different from what everyone else is doing.