He frequently thunders about upending the status quo, so perhaps it was fitting this past weekend when Governor Deval Patrick focused his penchant for change on himself: He shaved his head nearly bald.
"It's great!" Patrick said yesterday. "Low maintenance."
But that was all he would offer about the new look, and his press aides elaborated only a little, suggesting that the governor is a busy man and a shorter cut means fewer trips to the barber.
"He was just looking for a low-maintenance haircut," said spokeswoman Becky Deusser. "If he had known about today's cold snap, he might have held off."
Aside from his college days, when Patrick sported an Afro, the governor has always kept a closely-cropped style, but isn't known to have shaved his head during his public life. He typically gets his hair trimmed every three weeks by his sister, Rhonda Sigh, who is a stylist at La Novita in Randolph.
Sigh didn't respond to a request for comment yesterday, but another stylist who answered the phone at the shop said Patrick was there Saturday.
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, as he shook the governor's hand at a press conference yesterday, made a brief but private comment about the cut.
"You should have seen her expression when I came in," Patrick said, pointing toward Senate President Therese Murray. "It was most uncharitable."
MATT VISER
