Member-only story
Grappling With Going Bald
A story of self-acceptance
Few things will capture a man’s attention more than when he first realizes he is going bald. It might take the shape of a thin spot near the back of his head or an increasingly high forehead. There is no one way men go bald. As a matter of fact, they might not even be the ones who notice it. It might first be noticed by someone else who calls their attention to it. That’s what happened to me.
One day when I was a senior in high school, one of my friends asked me if I was losing my hair. This was the 1970s and long hair was standard issue for all males, so losing my hair was a serious matter, bordering on catastrophic. I told my friend that I had fine hair and a high forehead, but that was not what I was thinking inside.
Inside I was in panic mode. When I got home I immediately went to the bathroom, closed the door, and looked in the mirror. I pulled my hair back and looked at my hairline. Then I took a hand mirror and looked at my head from the side. I could not believe what I was seeing.
I always had baby fine hair, but now that my friend mentioned it, I began looking at it differently. Maybe I had been fooling myself. Maybe I really was losing my hair. But at 17? How could that be? And what could I do about it? Losing my hair, especially at such a young age, would be…
