Buy me, please.

Yesterday, I came into work with a new haircut. Or rather, with my head shaved. Initially, I faced the typical bombardment of inane question-statements one can expect when debuting a new cut, such as, "Oh, you got a haircut?!" and, my personal favorite, "Someone got a haircut?!" Yeah, yeah. Well, in between having my scalp inspected by my colleagues and joking about my raised mole, an interesting subject was--ahem--raised. Chiefly, how had my identity, my brand, been altered by my new cut? For whatever reason, I at first denied the existence of a personal brand. It seemed--oh, I don't know--a little vain. Like having your own website (sorry, website-havers). Eventually, though, I relented and acknowledged that, no matter what you want to call it, we brand ourselves in the image of what we desire to be seen as. We are our own account managers, media buyers, designers, and writers. For many of us, it's as close to creative director as we'll ever come. But what does it all mean? And how important is it in an industry where image is everything? Do we brand ourselves in the same way we would, say, a sports drink or piece of luggage, with an audience in mind? And what exactly are we selling? I'd like to think I don't give a damn about my brand, but I'm afraid it's not true. Everything is calculated. My haircut, by the way, is going over well.