They just wouldn't be the same without hair...

Over the last few months, as I've become aware of more and more hairloss stories, I've noted that a lot of children suffering from hairloss have become the proud owners of some rather delightful bald dolls. The toys, which are like any other doll except naturally without hair, seem to take pride of place on the toy shelves, in part because kids can relate to them and in part because frankly they're pretty cool!

Originally designed to support those suffering with any form of hairloss, they're a lovely awareness raising tool too - and they've got me thinking...

I often see comments about people struggling with 'society's expectations' that we should all have hair; the fact that actually individuals can come to terms with the hairloss itself, but not with the perceived or actual comments and feedback they receive. This in itself is a sad fact, but does society really expect us to have hair or are we simply projecting our own insecurities. In a previous blog post, I shared the frightening statistic that 57% of the teenage girls and 44% of the adult women believe that their hair defines who they are, which underpins the assertion that actually somehow, we are being programmed to believe that hair is more than just a biological entity made of keratin, but is in fact a contributor to our self-worth.

So bearing this in mind, I started to think about where this comes from? Is it in fact perpetuated by storytellers like the Brothers Grimm, and further perpetuated by businesses like 'Disney' who develop stories and films dedicated to hair - Repunzal just wouldn't work without her luscious locks facilitating her rescue; is it organisations like L'Oreal who tell us we're 'worth it' when it comes to glossy manes that we can swoosh round our head; or is it simply nothing other than the fact we all (nearly) have hair and therefore it is a natural human expectation? Looking at it another way, if the roles were reversed, would we feel threatened by a 'Planet of the Apes' style takeover if everyone was bald and suddenly random people started sprouting hair? I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure, short of removing all these influencers and isolating the next generation for testing, but one thing I do know is that slowly but surely, dedicated campaigns, non-conforming toys and a group of us with bucket loads of confidence can raise awareness and educate, potentially changing the future for someone else losing their hair...

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald