Hair Loss

What is it about hair loss that makes it such a dreaded condition? Men, more often than not face this malady after they turn 35 or are at the cusp of turning 40. 

After puberty hits and boys become men, hair starts sprouting at the most unexpected places. One wonders what the purpose would be of having hair in the unmentionable areas! They are perhaps remnants of the evolutionary process and a few thousand years from now would have disappeared completely. I have been hirsute right since childhood. There was a time I had developed a complex about going out wearing half sleeve shirts or going shirtless when some of my buddies did. I had abundant hair on my legs, chest, face, hands. Only my palm, nose, and some parts of the leg have been saved. Why am I so hairy?

So rewind a couple of years when I had a severe scalp infection and started losing clumps of hair. The fungi/bacteria or whatever it was, damaged a portion of my scalp permanently. So as a consequence while I had bountiful hair everywhere, the round patch on my head kept growing rapidly. In about ten years I am probably resigned to the fact of getting bald. I have no concerns though. The challenges I faced when I was in my teens were mostly in my mind. No one in business or my workplace cared that I had hair on every square inch of my body. This accident of birth perhaps made me very shy and reticent while growing up. I was clumsy, short, short on confidence, and too afraid to speak out in public or even among friends (who were very small in number) and relatives. I used to be comfortable only when I would be with Aai and Baba and to a certain extent Manoj. In later life, Jayesh appeared in our lives and our friendship turned out to be lasting, not having expectations of any kind. My relationship with Harshad and Alkatai was very strange while growing up. We were never the best of buddies, truth be told. It is much much later that we really got talking. What could be the reasons for this? Ours was perhaps a mildly dysfunctional family. More about this in some later post.

Marriage probably helped me a lot as I found my confidence and self-belief ascend. I wonder whether Gayatri has any insecurities similar to mine. I wasted many years hiding in my shell fearing the world would laugh at me. 

Now getting back to the title of this piece. I am now at peace with my hair loss. In fact, I am very happy after Vidula pruned my hair a few days ago. I am now almost bald and I am loving it! People apply dye or hair colour if they have a luxuriant mane. Others who are vain have ridiculous wigs which only highlight their baldness. Nowadays the rich go for keratin treatments, expensive hair transplants, and some such esoteric treatments. But to what end? The world doesn't care! All this expense can be put to better use. But I guess there are many businesses that thrive on vanity.