Screw being normal

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald... My Twitter: @baldguyproblemz

If you haven't seen my other blogs, check them out, my last one: http://prettybaldonline.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/different-experiences.html

“The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.” - Albert Einstein 

If someone said to you 'Hey, would you like to be the same as everyone else?'... I doubt many of you would go 'Yeah sure'.

Being different... I'm very sure when people strive to be different, they don't wish for alopecia but we do know that many people want to stand out from the crowd. Who wants to be the same? Why would you want to blend into the crowd? For example, being a nice person often makes you stand out, being another sheep in the herd is dull and undesirable.

Although alopecia obviously makes you different, it isn't a choice... I think it is an extremely testing condition which really puts your character to the test, especially as in many circles hair can be very significant... 

A spiritual leader named Yogi Bhajan once said “Our hair fashions might be just a trend, but if we investigate, we may find that we have been depriving ourselves of one of the most valuable sources of energy for human vitality.” This is regarding the belief that you should not cut your hair in some cultures. Take that as you will but largely, losing your hair is a big deal... It's not 'just hair'.

Male patterned baldness is a slightly different kettle of fish but the principle of a bald head is the same; one evolutionary theory proposed by C Jackson is that a 'well-polished' (like mine) bald male head was often used by tribes of cavemen to blind predators. As a result every cavemen hunting group of 8 had one bald member, and thus thousands of years later 1 in 8 men experience early on set of baldness. This is a crude and perhaps entertaining theory but still deserves some credit- being bald isn't all bad ;) 

However, in a more serious tone, I think losing your hair through alopecia helps give you access to some feelings which ordinary people can find hard to feel, like Rachel in my last post, she claims alopecia improved her life! I do truly think that alopecia has the potential to improve a person, make them stronger and perhaps help them discover what is really important in life. 

Joe Dokes from Chicago, USA provides a point of view that I agree with deeply:

"Baldness is a gift from nature. Once you begin to lose hair, you realize you are ageing and that nothing about you is forever. You are not here for admiring yourself in the mirror but for changing this world. Therefore you'll become wiser and death won't make you worry."

This to an extent backs up my point, losing your hair can be a tool to really improve your life. This may seem like an impossible or improbable outcome to some of you but I would again like to use Rachel as an example of someone in their last stage of alopecia- self acceptance. 

This is not to say that others without alopecia cannot achieve this but I'll I use an analogy to help explain. Say a wall for example has several coats of paint on it, to reach the raw wall, and actually see what it truly looks like, what it's made of, the paint has to be sanded off- if we replace the wall for YOU and the paint for HAIR and the sand paper for ALOPECIA, you can see what I mean about it helping you to find yourself. 

Following on from this, I think what is important in life in general is not to wish it away. It is easy to constantly look forward to the future or hope for better days/dream about an 'ideal life' but it is very important to enjoy the present. In this case we can relate it to alopecia, please do not waste all your energy on waiting for your hair to grow back so you can 'be happy again' because who needs hair to have fun?! Enjoy now, (that's why it's called the present). 

Alopecia doesn't define you

BP