Talking About Hair Loss - It’s About Time
September 23, 2008 by The Bald Truth
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Our culture is peppered with taboo subjects, things we just don’t discuss. Some of these are topics we only touch on with family while others are strictly for conversations with friends. Still more subjects may be considered unsuitable for mixed company. Then there are the topics that nobody discusses at all.
As our society grows older and wiser, we are slowly learning to embrace and encourage open discussions and to share our thoughts and feelings about the difficult obstacles in life. One such obstacle is hair loss. Yet we still have a long way to go in bringing hair loss into casual conversation in a meaningful way.
Suffering any kind of loss can be devastating. Hair loss is no different. Yet most hair loss sufferers remain silent as they go through the trying experience that hair loss incurs.
When one’s appearance changes drastically, there can be a profound psychological impact. Most people fail to recognize the challenges that hair loss sufferers face and most people who are suffering from hair loss refuse to talk openly about the experience.
For some, it’s too embarrassing. For others, it’s simply not an appropriate topic for discussion. Many people refrain from discussing painful subjects in any setting. Hair loss is one of those painful subjects.
In the video below, Spencer Kobren discusses the need for people to be more open about hair loss. He encourages hair loss sufferers to allow themselves a mourning period in which they recognize that they are going through a major life adjustment.
Noting that two-thirds of men start incurring hair loss by age 35 and that 40 percent of hair loss sufferers are women, Spencer points out that this is a relevant subject that affects a large proportion of our population.
Are you open to discussing hair loss? Whether you or a loved one is experiencing hair loss, make it a point to let this difficult topic into your conversations with people you trust. Building a support system through times of difficulty can help ease the pain and make the process easier to bear.
Maybe I’m just weird or something–well I know I’m a little weird :-)–but when I was first going through this I wanted to talk about my hair situation with everyone. I think talking about my hair loss helped me to deal with it too. I felt better when I discussed it. We should all be talking about it–there is no shame in discussing it. I think that’s part of the reason why hair loss insn’t taken seriously–because people are afraid to open up about it. If everyone knew how much this really affected our lives I think hair loss would be taken much more seriously!