Posted by
Doc Stephens on Saturday, June 14, 2008 10:36:01 AM
At nearly 65, I'm bald, and I've been that way for a long time. My hair noticeably began to thin when I was in my late teens and early twenties, just like my cousin's. My uncle on my mother's side, whom I resemble, also began losing his hair at an early age. I don't think about it very much because it is the way I am. I'm not sensitive about it as are some people. Early in my career, a friend advised me to get a hairpiece or wig if I wanted to progress in my career. He wore a hairpiece, but I didn't, and ironically, I progressed and he didn't. When I see someone with such an augmentation, I snicker to myself and draw conclusions about the obvious vanity or even insecurity.
There are many reasons or causes for baldness in men, and women, but it is interesting to note that the majority of men over the age of 50 are bald, or would be described as bald by others. This is why I cringe when I see advertisements for "cures" for baldness. Curing baldness would be like curing brown eyes. If a characteristic is typical or common, then it should not be described as something that should be "cured." It would be more accurate to "cure" delayed male hairyness which is the more unusual characteristic of men. Yet, there is a significant industry that is based on "curing" what is, in this case, normal and healthy.
Baldness is just one of many characteristics that may be the object of subtle or blatant derision or even prejudice. Deafness, blindness, shortness, tallness, thinness, fatness, darkness and even lightness of skin color are only a few of the countless examples of human variation, some natural--we're born that way, or it is our phenotype--and some the consequence of events or experiences that occured in our life. We all know of blind persons who have prospered, even soared to great heights of excellence in the field of music, or deaf persons who have become great artists. The brains of these individuals accommodated or developed in different ways because of the difference. they succeeded because of what some would call a disability.
It is natural to feel sympathy for someone who has suffered a loss of ability, or who has been changed by an incident, accident, or experience. Perhaps we need to look at it differently. Perhaps we need to feel empathy, realizing that the changed person now has different possibilities yet to be discovered, or that the different person may have other alternatives not open to those of us who describe ourselves as normal--whatever that may be.
The bald truth is that we are all unique--even identical twins are unique although they may share the same genes, but not the same experiences. What we may call "normal" may just be common. What we call a disability might allow for an extraordinary ability or a quality of life that the rest of us can not even imagine.