How I Embraced My Baldness

When we believe that a certain aspect of our appearance isn’t up to the level we want it to be, we start looking for a way to improve it. To enhance it so that maybe it can help the level of our social acceptability to increase. Physical appearance means a lot to us. We want to look in a certain way. Build muscle and get abs. Or eat less food to lose weight.

The beauty industry has become very lucrative in recent years due to the too much attention we put on physical appearance. Many firmly believe a perfect look is necessary to feel confident and get accepted by the kind of people they desire to associate with. Regardless of how you desire to look or which aspect of your body you’d like to enhance, it does one thing to everyone, it drives us to take action. I took action a few years ago when my hairline began to thin.

I didn’t know what to make of it when I realized that I was going bald while still in college. My dad wasn’t bald. My brother isn’t. “Why me?” The railleries from my friends weren’t an issue. The issue was how to regrow my hair so I can continue to cut my favorite hairstyle which isn’t possible with a fast receding hairline.

I wondered what it’d be like to live without hairs on my head. I pondered on the actions I can take to stay the execution of becoming a bald guy while still in my twenties. I registered for hair treatment therapy and started visiting the center twice a week for hair treatments. The attendants examined my scalp and recommended some hair products and treatment procedures to undergo.

But there was no positive result after months of hair treatments. The shiny hairline didn’t show any sign of improvement. The weak hairs didn’t get any stronger. The result wasn’t what I expected, but it was all I could get for the amount I paid. I stopped going for the treatment but continued to use the products until I exhausted them all.

**

I begin to ruminate on what I’d do next.

The idea of trying another center was quickly thrown out because it’d dig a hole in my thin wallet without any guarantee of getting a positive result. And since I’d develop bumps if I shave with an iron blade, I made up my mind to buy an electric clipper and to conveniently shave my hair at home twice a week.

I bought a strong electric clipper and began to practice cutting my hair. I turned to YouTube to learn from bald guys that have been giving themselves clean cuts for years. After grasping the rudiments of giving myself a haircut, I begin to give myself a smooth haircut twice a week. It was a time saver. It also saved me some bucks. And I feel good being able to give myself a nice haircut anytime I want.

A lot of men experience hair loss mostly in their thirties and forties. A receding hairline or thinning hair comes as a shocking reality for most people. They’ll first try to cover it with different hats or fix it before finally accepting themselves completely.

Every bald head out there tells a story. And it’s from these true-life stories which generally talk about struggle and shame that other folks struggling to embrace their baldness can find the courage to accept and be at peace with their baldness.

I tried to halt my hairline from receding. I fought it with different hair products and covered it with different hats. I did all I could to have my hair back. I remember saying to myself, “if I could regrow my hair, then maybe I can start to wear my favorite hairstyle again.” But all my efforts failed as my hair steadily thinned.

**

After dwelling in the path of denial for months, I made up my mind to embrace my baldness even though I didn’t know what it’d feel like to shave off my hair. I gave up the hair products that never yielded any positive results. I stopped trying to cover it. It’s my body and if I can’t feel confident in my body then I’m not ready to build myself to live a life I’d be proud of.

The comments I received from some of my friends weren’t encouraging when they first noticed that I now wear a smooth cut. They wanted to talk me into keeping my hair and to continue with the hair treatments. My response was that I’d mull over it. But I continue to carry my smooth cut. Keeping it short at the onset allowed me to gradually get used to the feeling of having no hair on my head. As blogger David Evans says:

“Work with it, not against it. Keep it short, don’t try to hide anything (covering up anything only draws attention to what you’re trying to hide).”

**

Accepting Yourself Wholly Can be Liberating

If you lack self-acceptance, the acceptance you’d receive from others would neither be enough nor feel like acceptance. And if you lack self-love, the love you‘d receive from others would always be insufficient. Self-acceptance limited the effects that might’ve emanated from any perceived inadequacies by allowing me to discover and appreciate my uniqueness. It was the prerequisite requirement I fulfilled before I could embrace my baldness. Even amidst the uncomfortable feelings that resulted from shaving off my hair, I continued to keep at it because I’ve come to accept myself wholly.

Folks around you might think they know what’s best for you and would want you to look in a certain way. But if you improve your physical appearance solely to impress others, you’d after some time find yourself thinking that you still need to do more to continue to receive the fleeting acceptance and recognition from others. You’d neither see your uniqueness nor understand that you’re enough.

If I had followed the advice of friends heeded, I’d have continued to fight with my thinning hair instead of embracing it and living a life that isn’t burdened with the avoidable stress of impending baldness. Once I accepted myself wholly and embraced my baldness, every stress and worry about my thinning hair and what others might think about it gradually dissipated….

“The more you believe in yourself, the more the world believes in you! ” — Isa Zapata.

Shaving off my hair attracted different reactions from people around me who tried to talk me into keeping my hair. But I continued to walk in the direction I chose even though I struggled to keep my feet firm in my choosing path. There were days when I considered the advice of my friends. But the more I continue doing what I feel uncomfortable doing, the more I feel comfortable and confident with my body.

My critics and doubters turned to admirers and supporters after seeing how I glow in my new look and how it complements my other features.

It’s alright to struggle before accepting your baldness or any part of your body that makes you feel less confident. According to Gershen Kaufman, the author of The psychology of shame, “I don’t believe I’ve ever met a human being who has not experienced some degree of shame about his or her body no matter how it seems to match the ideal. There’s always something wrong with the body.”

Among the good things that lie beneath shame and insecurity is the feeling of liberation that would envelop you after accepting yourself the way you are. You’d also notice how accepting and being at peace with your body increases your confidence level to the level where you’d begin to radiate inner beauty and elegance which would guide you to see how all your physical features complement each other.

You won’t ever see your true self if you’re always looking for someone to tell you that you look good. Being good-looking is about accepting yourself wholly. It’s about appreciating every aspect of you. It’s about reminding yourself at all times that you’re unique. And that no one else looks like you. It has nothing to do with what other people think about you, and what they’re doing to enhance their physical appearances, but a lot to do with how you see yourself and what you think about yourself.

**

Conclusion.

You should do what’s best for yourself. You can spend money to look better. But there should be a point where you stop. Where you begin to tell yourself that you’re enough. And when you do this, you become content with every aspect of your body. You see how your physical features complement each other. You radiate Internal beauty and elegance which surpasses external appearance. You become confident and more aware of your looks. You start to believe more in what you say about yourself than what others say.

However, if you don’t believe you look good, then even after you’ve succeeded in enhancing your look, you still won’t believe that you look good. This is why you have to acknowledge and believe in yourself before and after trying to enhance your appearance.

Accepting myself the way I am by embracing baldness, and being at peace with it became possible when I started to follow my intuition and guide myself to do what was best for me. All the struggle that comes with embracing baldness is all in the head. After I realized that being bald won’t in any way affect my life negatively, I embraced it. And it turned out to be the look that complements my other features.

I’ve through my experience learned that when you accept yourself wholly, you release yourself to discover your uniqueness and completeness. It’s also from accepting yourself the way you’re that you can appreciate the body that’s helping you do all the things you do in life. What makes some people go to dangerous lengths to enhance their look is that they are yet to wholly accept themselves. You need no validation from anyone about your appearance if you acknowledge that you look good.

Baldness isn’t a weird look, but a natural appearance. It’s cool and admirable when you wear it with grace and confidence. One can be bald and still look unique and attractive. Life isn’t about what you don’t have, but about how you’re living above perceived inadequacies. And how you’re using what you have to add value to your life.

I haven’t lost all my hair yet. I still have some left that can allow me to wear a low-cut hairstyle if I wish to. Maybe someday I’ll lose them all, but it doesn’t matter because I wear it like there’s none left. I could have chosen to wear my hair like Jason Statham by keeping my hair short so it’d align with the receded areas, but I prefer to wear it like the likes of L.L Cool J, and Vin Diesel. And I’m loving it.