Natural Health Trip

A Cowboy Hat In Manhattan?

Have you seen that commercial with the sympathetic lawyer asking you if you're having any problems with the folks running Social Security who are denying you benefits that you rightfully deserve?

know, he says something like "We're here to help you get what you deserve. Leave it to us. You've got more important things to do. Let us deal with the government." He's in his thirties or early forties and he's wearing a gigantic hat that looks weird and out of place, especially since the background is mid-town Manhattan. The hat is stylish, but it looks like a cowboy hat, and it dominates his facial appearance. My wife and I were watching that commercial for the umteenth time, and we both chuckled and I said, " I'll bet you a dinner at The Capital Grille that that guy is bald as a cue ball." We both laughed more, because I realized only too well what it's like to lose your hair, especially when you're in you're mid-twenties when you and your friends are hanging out in the River Shannon drinking Bud Light and trying to impress all the hot chicks who wander into the bar. Any time you see a male wearing a hat in a situation where it seems out of place, the reason is that he's self conscious about his baldness. The same goes for some of those men who shave their heads completely bald, too.

In my teens, I had several years where my face looked like someone had shot me from fifty feet with a sawed-off shotgun. Talk about zits! Wow, it was tough looking at myself in the mirror. I couldn't imagine what all the girls thought. I guess that explains why I didn't have many dates back then. I tried everything available on the market then, which were mostly cover ups that I feverishly tried to make blend in with my unblemished skin color. It's hard to do. But fortunately for me, Mother Nature came to the rescue and my skin cleared up by the time I reached 20. I was greatly relieved.

Darn That Mother Nature!

But as we all know, Mother Nature giveth and Mother Nature taketh away. It was in my twenties that I ran into the next problem that almost destroyed my life. When the first sign of baldness came about, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I mean, nobody in my family was bald, and no matter how many other problems I had; baldness was nowhere even on the horizon of my hypochondria. So to wake up one day and realize that when I wasn’t looking, my hairline had receded by a bit, there was a bald spot developing on my crown, and I was deathly afraid I was going to end up with a completely bald head. It was not a pleasant thought. And it was no use knowing that if there was any human condition that I was absolutely mortified of, it was baldness.

That's When I Started to Wear A Hat Everywhere

Having resolved to hide the ugly truth from all m friends, I went to all my graduate school hangouts, the coffee shop, the internet center and even the gym with a perky cap covering my head. Most of my friends were initially curious. Soon they became perturbed by my bizarre behavior. And when they ganged up to confront me I shamefacedly told them the truth about my baldness. Their first reaction was one of derisive laughter. But soon, they had calmed down sufficiently to try and help me out of my misery. Some of my older and wiser friends shared their own experiences with baldness. One of them in fact took the trouble to take me through all the baldness cures he had personally tried and why each of them didn’t work. Another friend told me in no uncertain terms that if baldness had decided to set in, there was nothing I could do to prevent it. I just had to grin and live with baldness for the rest of my life.

There Is Hope

Fortunately he was wrong. I was able to get some information about baldness, how to deal with it and what baldness remedies I might try out to get the best results. I started with a dermatologist. He said that there was hope for me because my baldness was not genetic, and he recommended some dietary changes together with some medication. For instance, I found that Minoxidil, a solution that was to be applied to bald spots was the solution most preferred by balding adults. Nearly two out of three people who had used this baldness treatment, had seen positive results. The other treatment was Finasteride – an oral baldness treatment that I could try. Finasteride seemed to enjoy a higher success rate among people with baldness. But it was not as popular as Minoxidil as it was reputed to cause some side effects which affected sexual performance. Tough choice eh? Lose your hair or lose your drive.

The dietary changes that my doctor recommended would slow the development  a competely bald head. He said a deficiency of Vitamin C could result in hair loss. The same for virtually all of the B vitamins. Also stress and a lack of sleep can affect hair loss. So now I'm drinking a lot more orange juice, taking a lot more naps, and taking dietary supplements. It seems my hair loss has been stopped, at least for now. On the brighter side, I've heard bald men have higher testosterone than men with a full head of hair. So I don't plan on taking any Minoxidil!

Technorati Tags: baldness, dermatologist, Hair Loss, Health, medicine, preventing hair loss

Suggested Reading

• More Benefits Of Aloe Vera
• Consult A Dermatologist For Skin Care Problems
• Basic Information About Natural Herbal Remedies
• Good Teeth, Good Health
• Information On Acne Scar Treatments

Tags: baldness, dermatologist, Hair Loss, Health, medicine, preventing hair loss

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Appearance, Diet, Hair Loss, Health, Medical, Skin Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.