14 January 2013

Balding.

Sometimes I read a piece of writing, and it takes me back to an experience I've had. I was so moved when I read an article on Daily Life by Katie Fridkis (visit her great blog Eat the Damn Cake) about her experience of hairloss in her early 20s. Katie writes about initially feeling self conscious about her hair loss to having to use a male hair growth product, associating hair with femininity and finally owning her hair loss by shaving her head and exposing her peach fuzz scalp to the world. She received so many compliments about how great she looked, and she came to love her appearance again. The comments under Katie's article also showed how hair loss in makes can also decrease self confidence.

I thought back to when I lost a large portion of my hair between the age of 14 and 17-ish. Though I did not go completely bald, and I certainly can't compare it to a cancer patient losing their hair, the hair loss certainly impacted on my confidence and dare I say it, ability to feel beautiful.


A symptom of the variation of Ichthyosis I have is brittle hair - or 'bamboo hair' as described in medical texts. When I was a baby, and also as a pre-schooler - as Mum tells me, my hair fell out. My parents thought that I was going to go through life without hair. Fortunately my hair growth has sustained, and I've managed to have the same hairdo since I began school! A few years back, my dermatologist showed me my old patient notes from when I was six years old. My only dream was to have long hair. That dream has never come true, though while away on holidays last year, my hair was touching my shoulders when wet and I was very excited about that! Though my curls give the facade that my hair is voluminous, my hair is actually quite fine.

The hair loss as a teenager came at a time when I was at my least confident. When I just wanted to fit in and not look any more different than I already did. I wanted to use Clearasil and shave my legs and wear skimpy clothing - even though it was impractical to do any of those things. After a holiday to the Great Ocean Road, where we stayed in cabin accommodation , I felt my scalp get more itchy than usual. Maybe I picked up an allergy from the pillows? I scratched and scratched, and in doing so, the hair on the back of my head broke off. My scalp bled, my skin peeled, my hair didn't grow. And I effectively had a self-cultivated undercut (something I found attractive in boys at school in year seven, but something I did not want for myself!). I also had lots of bald patched over my head, including at the front of my head.

I was so self conscious of it. I hoped no one would notice. Mum used to tie my hair in curly pigtails and brush the sparse hair over the bald patch at the back. When my hair did grow a bit, I would flatten it and tie it back, doing a side part to cover the bald bits at the front. I hated it.

Over a few years, my hair became fuller and has stayed that way, and now I only have to manage smaller bald patches which are usually caused by me being too rough when combing my scalp. My scalp still can get extremely itchy and sometimes I rub my head up on corners of walls or furniture to relieve it. Weird, like a sheep scratches itself on a fence. I wash it with sulphate free shampoo and condition every day, and don't use much product in it - only Bodyshop Brazil nut cream and Dove hair oil. Thanks to my gentler treatments, and more positive outlook, I feel far less self conscious about my fine, sometimes broken off hair. I've had it straightened twice in the last year, and have even felt a little more confident at hairdressers.

Katie writes

"...sometimes flaunting the stuff that you’re most self-conscious about forces you to embrace it. It forces you to acknowledge who you already are."

Her words touched me. I wish this article was written 17 years ago, to help build my self confidence. I am so glad to finally feel positive way about my whole appearance . Able to make jokes about it, accept that this is how it is - I will never be Rapunzel, and never reach back to my South African heritage with an Afro - and not want to change things. And most importantly, I am able to feel happy looking in the mirror and also when I face the world.

-

There is an initiative run by Pantene called Beautiful Lengths where women can donate a ponytail to create wigs for other women who have lost their hair to cancer treatment. It's such a great cause!

 

18 comments:

  1. Great piece! Really enjoyed it, much food for thought

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  2. Thanks for sharing this, Carly. I feel stupid for being self-conscious about most of the things that bother me re: my appearance. Either through genetics or autoimmune disease, I am greying prematurely. I've always had fairly brittle, easily damaged hair, but constant dyeing takes its toll and it grows very slowly. I would love to have hair past my shoulders, but we'll see what happens. Isn't it funny how so many feelings and ideas about beauty and femininity are tied into... hair? Hair doesn't even really do much!

    x

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    1. Hi Amber. Thanks for your comment. It's true how we tie our ideas about hair into beauty - the hair on our head anyway - and yet it's preferred that women have no hair on our bodies.

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  3. Owing to stress I lost about half of my hair a few years ago. It has come back somewhat but I've still got to be careful how I comb it or I have bald patches. I'm giving taking vitamin D3 a go after reading a study on it being beneficial for hair (not to mention also useful for calcium absorption which is a constant need for me). I am self conscious of it and miss my hair so much, fingers crossed this works but it is interesting how much being girly is tied into hair.

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    1. Lisa, thanks as always for your comment and support. And thanks for the vitaminD3 rec.
      I hope your hair grows back to its former state soon :)

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  4. It's interesting how hair plays a role not only in how we see ourselves, but how others perceive me. When I was a teenager I had very short, spiky hair. I was continually mistaken for a boy and it had an awful effect on my already non-existent self-esteem. I've known a few girls over the years who have felt empowered by shaving their heads, though they were often confronted by aggressive men demanding to know if they were "one of them lesbians" as if hair could somehow determine a person's sexuality! I think we have a long way to go before society at large is ready to accept all different kinds of beauty. I'm so glad to hear you have grown to love your difference, rather than trying to blend into the background Carly! Thank you for sharing this story!.

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    1. First sentence should read "how others perceive us" not me. Blah.

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    2. Hi Laurel - yes you're so right, hair does seem to determine society's perception of the type of person we are! Like men with long hair are rough? I personally used to like men with long hair when I was younger. I sat through a Uni lecture about black English women and the way they believed their Afro styles hair held them back in jobs and dating - it was interesting.
      And so often, magazines and men regard women with short hair as less attractive than women with long hair. It's sad isn't it.
      Thank you for your thoughtful comments :)

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  5. Your quote strikes a note with me and I think it is probably time to face the fact that I have lost my breasts. I didn't lose them to anything traumatic or awful like cancer, but to a wonderful thing - breastfeeding. I'm very skinny and tall, shapeless and strong. Before children I had perky A-cups, and would happily go bra-less. During 4 years of breastfeeding (2 kids in a row) I had E, F, even G cups sometimes but always bigger than a DD (on a size 6 to 8 body). I loved it and forgot how I loved my small pre-baby boobs. When I stopped feeding nearly two years ago, my chest went completely flat. I'm talking nipples only. I wear a foam padded breast-shaped A-cup bra and it is completely empty (hollow between my skin and the bra)and often I wear those silicon stick-on bras too except I use two pairs over the top of each other. I recently have found a boyfriend and have been with him a month, and he loves me as flat as I am. He says I should embrace them as "French titties" and go bra-less as I used to. I'm terrified of looking masculine and have bad posture because I am trying to hide my flat chest. It is something I can easily hide in public by wearing a firm bra, and yet I feel constantly self-conscious. Thanks for being such an inspiration, Carly, I always love reading your blogs and status updates.

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    1. Hi Verity - wow I am blown away by your honesty - thank you for feeling confident enough to share your story here with me.
      You're beautiful and I hope you embrace your shape soon :)

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  6. Firstly, Carly I've always liked your hair! Secondly, Katie's quote is so wise. I've experienced baldness when I had chemotherapy. Losing my hair upset me almost as much as the treatment (I know, sounds weird, but I grieved my hair loss so much). It took me a long time to embrace the baldness. And probably by the time I was ready to embrace it, it grew back. I know now that it wasn't the end of the world. In hindsight I am thankful for it because I can stand with bald women and relate to what they may be feeling. That last picture of you is gorgeous - you look truly happy. x

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    1. Thank you so much Deb. you are so strong, and I admire the perspective you have. Did your hair grow back differently after your treatment? I've heard that can happen.

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  7. I like your shiny curls and think your hair suits you just the way it is. I thought you purposely kept it that length because it looks so good.
    I've always dreamed of long hair too, way down my back. It will never happen, I know that now, it grows to maybe six inches past my collar, then stops at that length. It'll do.
    I knew girls in primary school that had plaits and ponytails they could sit on. I was sooooo jealous!

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    1. Thanks River! I also want to do one of those waterfall braids I see in magazines - oh I can dream.

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  8. I think your hair is beautiful Carly! (I loved your style when I saw it. Wouldn't have even known that you didn't have much choice in how you styled it. It's beautiful just the way it is.) I think we all have struggles at certain periods of our lives with self acceptance. My experience is similar to yours (accepting things we can't change. Except instead of hair, it was my legs that bothered me. Reading your interview on here with Francesca Martinez has been a big help to my own self esteem. Thanks Carly!)

    I'll tell you something I rarely discuss. My hair is now short not just by choice. My muscles in my arms and the joints in my hands are sometimes so stiff that it makes grooming my hair difficult. I can basically wash it, brush it and that's it. Styling it is something I've had a long struggle with. So I finally decided to cut it off, so I no longer had to depend on anyone to style my hair for me.
    I love this entry.

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    1. Oh Katie - thank you for your womderful comment - your compliment and your own story. You've got a great hairdo - you got to make things as easy as your body can manage, and if that means a short pixie cut, so be it! Thank you and lots of love xx

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  9. You're so positive despite your condition and it's just wonderful reading another post from you in which you embrace your beauty! I think you have such lovely curls that really suit you and that vibrant smile and confident personality. <3

    I think hair just has a life of its own sometimes, whether or not we have a condition that affects it. My mum had a perm back in the 80s and now she has straight hair; she never really got rid of the perm but it just disappeared! My boyfriend never does anything to his hair but over the years it's taken shape to become fluffier and cuter. :D From a personal point of view, I actually experienced a lot of hair loss as a child. I'm not sure why. I had very very long hair that reached my knees, but it was horrid-looking when I tied it up because it was so, so thin. It wasn't appealing hair and I always had to braid it. Over the years and while I've kept it much shorter than that, my hair has gotten a lot thicker.

    I actually suffer from trichotillomania, which started back when I was 14 (which was when I cut my hair for the first time so it wasn't down to my knees, and, I'm 21 now). At times it's gotten so uncontrollable that I've ended up with bald patches, and my hair falls out when I stress, which makes it doubly worse! I know how you feel, but sometimes I've just learned to leave it how it is and not be so conscious about it, just like you have.

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