How My Thinning Hairline Led Me to a Better Life.
“Your hair looks like the southern portion of Florida: disappearing by the day.” a barber commented about my hair nonchalantly. This remark caught me off guard. I sat there wondering how I should respond. I just gave him an unsettling smile. Another customer, waiting on the bench with his face planted on the phone, smirked. An assistant who was cleaning the floor with his noisy vacuum shouted, “There are some handsome bald guys but most of them are taller” That was the last time I visited any barbershop.
I always knew my hairline was getting thinner but I could not accept being bald. After the movie Tere Naam came out in 2003, I wanted to copy Salman Khan’s hairstyle. I went over to my friend’s house and asked him to put the hair gel he bought from the store. That’s the first time I noticed that my upper forehead had practically no hair on both sides. I was 11 years old then. Still, I parted my hair in the middle and gave myself a short fringe look just like in the movie.
The struggle to keep a fuller hair look continued for the next decade. I changed styles over the years from a short buzz cut look to a long Chris Hemsworth look. Nothing worked as I expected. For a teenager who had all his self-worth tied to his physical appearance, this was heartbreaking. Around 20 years old, I could see my entire scalp when the wind blew my long…
