Bald and Bold: Alopecia Areata from the perspective of an Indian girl.

I am a 23 year old Indian lawyer, a defense personnel’s daughter and I am going bald.I had beautiful black curly hair but I shaved my head recently to see If I can treat them with natural remedies. I have been genetically gifted with alopecia areata and have always had thinner hair in comparison with what curly hair people really have.

My nightmare began 3 years back, whatever I did with my hair, be it combing washing tying, everything caused my hair to fall off in a way only cancer patients experience. My head started to show and because I had curly hair, they covered it pretty well except when wet. I started taking very long baths,only place where I could hide and be myself, talking and crying and cursing my fate. Sulking away of how I wish I’d never been born. Nobody and I mean Nobody can imagine the agony of losing hair. My ex broke up with me on reasons only God can explain. People, my friends even started telling me how they could notice I was going bald and I made fun of it to look strong and moved on. Being a Hindu girl, I got scared of the tradition of Hindu marriage of the groom putting vermilion powder in the center parting of the bride’s hair.
IMAGINE WHERE WOULD YOU PUT THAT ON A BALD GIRL’S HEAD?
But then I figured out this isn’t gonna happen for me. Eventually the everyday blaming the Fate, God, Genes stopped.

Now, I have learnt how to live with it and believe it or not I wouldn’t change a thing because I believe God has bigger plans for me. I don’t talk about inner beauty as outer appearance does matter, it’s like the trailer of a movie.
Yes thoughts did come to me like:
“Will anyone ever love me?”
“Will I ever get married?”
“Should I get a tattoo after I permanently shave it off?”

Somewhere down the line, I accepted myself but I regret being an Indian when it comes to all this as I’ve come across stories of bald women and small girls being accepted in the western society and here in India I’ve seen girls being ashamed of being bald. Numerous examples I can give, this girl travelling in Delhi metro in the women’s coach covered her head with the little hair left with was being stared at so badly she almost cried. Why couldn’t she just shave it off? This is not right, do bald men get stared at? This stigma around female beauty and the so called standards show what our two faced society looks like.

To all the Indian men out there, I want to say look beyond her hair; Stop your parents from rejecting a girl just because she doesn’t have hair. And to all the girls be brave if your bald and have a heart if you’re not

I even wrote about it and one day hopefully I will remove the anonymity of my answer.

I don’t cry anymore instead when I look in the mirror I appreciate the beautiful heart I have and the lovely features of my face. All of this made me realize in Life you need to set your priorities straight and it works like magic.

ITS TIME WE TEACH OUR GIRLS ITS OKAY TO BE BALD, IF YOU WANT IT TO BE OKAY FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD.